Mumbai Police to seek Tinku’s custody, more trouble for Sreesanth

In what could spell more trouble for S Sreesanth, the Mumbai Crime Branch obtained a production warrant against Ashwin Aggarwal alias Tinku Delhi in the current T20 spot fixing scandal today. Rahul Mahajani and Charul Shah report.

In what could spell more trouble for S Sreesanth, the Mumbai Crime Branch obtained a production warrant against Ashwin Aggarwal alias Tinku Delhi in the current T20 spot fixing scandal on Monday.

Crime branch officials said that whether Sreesanth would be made an accused in the case registered in Mumbai will depend on the interrogation of Tinku.

Tinku, as per police sources, is a common link in both the cases registered in Mumbai and Delhi. Tinku was in touch with Ramesh Vyas and Virendra Dara Singh Randhawa alias Vindoo, both arrested by Mumbai Crime Branch, and was also in touch with Sreesanth in the spot fixing case registered by Delhi Police, said crime branch officials.

The Mumbai crime branch had earlier searched Sreesanth’s room and seized his laptop, dairies and other materials from a five-star hotel located in the Bandra-Kurla complex.

A team of the Mumbai crime branch will be leaving for Delhi on Tuesday to try and get Tinku’s custody from a court in Delhi, said Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of police (crime).

Though Mumbai Crime Branch’s case is still limited only to cricket betting, they have been questioning all the arrested accused to check if any one of them was involved in spot-fixing.

"From the investigations so far, there is no evidence to suggest spot-fixing in the case registered in Mumbai but our investigations are on," said an officer, requesting anonymity.

As per the police case, Tinku was also the facilitator of calls between bookies operating from India, and those in Pakistan and Dubai. Investigating officer Nandkumar Gopale told the court that they needed to interrogate and arrest Tinku in the present case registered by the Mumbai Crime Branch in connection with the T20 League betting scandal.

Also, Tinku is believed to be in touch with a Dawood Ibrahim gangster who used to call the shots during the current T20 league.