The Delhi police's special cell is now looking into the role of few more players, both foreign and Indian, who may have been involved in spot fixing in the ongoing as well as previous seasons.
Though investigators claimed their role could be established only after further investigation, sources said that eight players who are now under scanner were allegedly approached by bookies.
The latest disclosures were made by two main arrested bookies Chandresh Patel and Amit Singh, a cricketer-turned-bookie. The scrutiny of Ajit Chandila's telephonic conversation with a bookie after his match with Pune on May 5 also indicated that he had worked for them in the previous season.
In that match Chandila was asked to give the pre-determined signal before starting his over in which he had agreed upon giving 14 runs. However, Chandila forgot to send the signal as a result of which bookies could not bet in the match. “During the conversation Chandila was heard saying he will sit with them and settle everything, the way they did in the last season. This indicated that Chandila was in touch with the bookies in the last season as well,” said a senior officer.
Another reason which has made police probe roots of the last season is the surprising defeat of Rajasthan against Delhi in a match played between them at Delhi. “In that particular match Rajasthan had to score 12 runs in last twelve balls with eight wickets in hand. Despite being in the winning position, Rajasthan lost that match and we believe that it happened because the match was either fixed or some players were involved in spot-fixing,” the officer added.
{{/usCountry}}Another reason which has made police probe roots of the last season is the surprising defeat of Rajasthan against Delhi in a match played between them at Delhi. “In that particular match Rajasthan had to score 12 runs in last twelve balls with eight wickets in hand. Despite being in the winning position, Rajasthan lost that match and we believe that it happened because the match was either fixed or some players were involved in spot-fixing,” the officer added.
{{/usCountry}}On April 6, Chandila had attended a party organised by the bookies at a hotel, Country Club, in Gurgaon in which he was asked to convince and induct some more players in spot-fixing.
In the next party organised on April 8 at Jaipur, Chandila brought Chavan in the party and introduced him to the bookies. Three other Rajasthan players — Brad Hodge, Kevon Cooper and Siddharth Trivedi — were requested to come to the party. However, they did not show.