IPL debut racket: Director of RN Sports arrested
The club had signed an agreement with an Indian Premier League team to hunt talent in 2012
The property cell of the Mumbai crime branch officers on Tuesday arrested a fourth director on RN Sport Club in connection with the multi-crore cricket racket.
The club had signed an agreement with an Indian Premier League team to hunt talent in 2012. The agreement was cancelled owing to bad practices by the club. By then , the main accused, Vijay Borate, 40, had attended several press conferences with the team. Borate, a director of the club, used his pictures to allegedly cheat budding cricketers of lakh by promising them a berth in IPL.
According to investigation, twenty-six-year-old Ashutosh Bagel from Uttar Pradesh was one of hundreds of victims. He had received a letter from the RN Sports Club that he was selected to play with an IPL team in 2012. Bagel was also given a flight ticket. On entering the plane, he saw team players and was excited. On reaching Delhi, Bagel like the rest of the players entered the team, but the security officers in South Africa threw him out.
He allegedly paid Rs9 lakh to the directors of the RN Sports for his IPL debut.
The fourth director was identified as Ravindra Wadekar, 27. The other three arrested men are key accused Vijay Borate; Dinesh More, 25; and Jeevan Mukadam, 30.
Officers said that Wadekar had met Borate at the Vidarbh Cricket Association in 2011. After planning the racket for two years, they opened the RN Sports Club in 2013.
“In the two years of planning, Wadekar had invested money in a software company, which displayed commercials near the boundary line during matched in the West Indies. He also handed over a Man-of-the-Match trophy after a match between Sri Lanka and West Indies,” said an officer from the property cell.
The officers said that they used these photos to their advantage and created a Facebook profile of the club. They started organising private tournaments and talent hunt workshops to allegedly dupe aspiring cricketers.
The officers said that Borate, who was arrested last month, had told them that he was in touch with many private cricket tournament organisers in north India.
“Borat knew that the victim’s would not approach the BCCI as they could get blacklisted for paying. Against the directors’ intuition, some cricketers complained to the body they and registered a case against RN Sports Club.
The police are now on a look out for some players who are part of the racket.
“We will question Wadekar now to know the extent of the racket,” said the officer.