Vindoo introduced to Meiyappan by Dhoni’s friend: Police sources

With the spot fixing scandal revealing the murky trail leading to bookies and spot fixing, the noose is tightening around Gurunath Meiyappan, Chennai Super King (CSK) “honorary member” and son-in-law of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief N Srinivasan. In an exclusive response to TEHELKA, top police sources said that alleged bookie Vindoo Dara Singh was introduced to Meiyappan by Arun Pandey, a very close friend and business partner of MS Dhoni.

Meiyappan came under the scanner following the arrest of Vindoo Dara Singh, (son of late wrestler-actor Dara Singh) on Tuesday after Singh claimed that he betted on behalf of Meiyappan. Singh, who was allegedly arrested for being in touch with bookies will now be in police custody till 28 May after the Mumbai police got an extension from a court. Singh’s arrest had sparked a massive controversy after pictures of him watching CSK matches with Indian captain MS Dhoni’s wife, Sakshi were played up on news channels hinting at the Dhoni link.

After being summoned by Mumbai police, Meiyappan took a chartered flight to appear before the police. But even before his reaching Mumbai, India Cements (the company which owns CSK) distanced itself from Meiyappan saying that he was neither the owner nor the CEO/Team Principal of CSK. “Mr Gurunath is only of the Members (Honorary) of the Management Team of CSK,” they clarified.

Many like former IPL Commissioner, Lalit Modi and more recently, Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have called for BCCI chief N Srinivasan’s resignation. However Srinivasan has shown no intention of stepping down on account of his son-in-law being probed for betting and is instead headed to Kolkata to attend the rest of the IPL matches.

The spot fixing scandal hit IPL 6 when Rajasthan Royal players S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajeet Chandila were arrested by the Delhi police on May 16 for alleged spot fixing. A series of arrests of bookies and players have since followed and Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf too is being investigated for his role in the scandal which is throwing up bigger names in the investigations with each passing day. Rauf has been dropped by the ICC from the Chmpions Trophy while Sreesanth, Chavan and Chandila have been suspended by the BCCI pending inquiry.

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