ED chargesheet in Guj against bookie in IPL betting case

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) submitted a chargesheet against alleged cricket bookie Anil Jaisinghani before a special court in Ahmedabad last week in a money laundering case related to the Rs 2,600-crore IPL betting scandal in 2015. Jaisinghani had been absconding for eight years till Mumbai police held him from Gujarat during investigation as he is also an accused in a bribery-extortion case filed by deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis’s wife Amruta in February. The ED took his custody in April and has now filed the chargesheet in the 2015 case. The agency had also probed Sukhwinder Singh Sodhi and Tommy Patel, who was arrested in 2015. But Sodhi remains at large. Sodhi, based in the UAE, would coordinate between one of the key bookies, Mukesh Kumar, and a UK betting website, said sources. It was alleged that Mukesh would sell login IDs of the betting portal to bookies across the India to accept bets on IPL matches. Jaisinghani would get a commission from the betting syndicate for referring them clients. Recently, the ED provisionally attached Jaisinghani’s hotel at Shirdi in the case. It is alleged that Jaisinghani had bought land in Shirdi using over Rs 2 crore ‘proceeds of crime’ in 2015 and subsequently constructed the hotel. Jaisinghani is said to have got around Rs 10 crore from the betting syndicate. While investigating the betting scandal, the ED’s Ahmedabad zone learnt about Jaisinghani. But the trail went cold a ED officials faced corruption allegations. The ED recorded the statements of those involved in the betting syndicate to ascertain Jaisinghani’s role in the case. One of the accused, Paresh Asarpota, told the ED Jaisinghani used to receive commission from him for referring clients. He got paid by several other bookies too. The ED has seized documents to confirm that Jaisinghani received commission from a bookie known as Maruti Ahmedabad. Another bookie Aman Sachdeva has admitted to the ED that he took the line for betting from one Surendar Mandi alias “Mandi”. It is alleged that Jaisinghani was his Mumbai-based partner.