da dobrowin： An excerpt from the court’s order that shows the charges laid against Chavan
da pixbet： ESPNcricinfo staff26-Jul-2015The case of prosecution against Ankit Chavan is that the investigations revealed that he was an employee of Air India and was playing for Rajasthan Royals in IPL6. He was involved in spot /session fixing on 15.05.2013 in a match between Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians at Mumbai and had taken Rs.60 lakhs in cash in lie thereof. He had met Bookie Jitender Jain through Chandresh Patel to join in the conspiracy of spot fixing in lieu of heavy consideration. He was arrested on 16 May, 2013, at Mumbai. Witness Sidharth Trivedi in his statement under Section 164 CrPC had disclosed that Ankit Chavan along with other players, used to go for parties together. Likewise witness, Harmeet Singh in his statement under Section 164 CrPC had disclosed that Ajit had informed that Ankit and Sreesanth were their people and they would do it. Statement of theses two witnesses also support the allegations of spot fixing against him. It is further claimed that in the month of March, 2013 he had met Kiran Dhole, Ashwani Aggarwal, Ajit Chandila in Delhi which was for spot session fixing. It is further submitted that 3 mobiles phones were also discovered from him. Scrutiny of call details of these numbers show that he had the links with the bookies. Also, the intercepted voice calls amongst Ankit Chavan, Ajit Chandila and Chandresh and others also show that he had agreed to participate in spot fixing. It is further submitted that Shri Rahul Dravid, captain of Rajasthan Royal and Satyan Saraswat, Chief finance officer of Rajasthan Royals, Shri Raghu Iyer, Chief executive officer of Rajasthan Royals and Shri Prashant Bhardwaj have stated that they have been cheated by this player who made them believe that he would perform to the best of his ability. It is thus, submitted that Ankit the player had agreed to fixing of a match for a consideration at the behest of bookies who were part of crime syndicate.Learned counsel for accused has argued that the entire evidence as collected by prosecution does not point out that Ankit Chavan was a member of crime syndicate. Also, there is no evidence to show that he had underplayed the match and had taken Rs 60 lakhs in lieu thereof. Mere intercepted calls without being supported by any actual facts of spot fixing cannot make out a case against the accused.The allegations of prosecution against Ankit Chavan, who is a cricket player, is that he had taken Rs.60,00,000/ and had under played in a match in IPL6 in lieu thereof. This made his team captain Rahul Dravid and other officers and members of public feel cheated by this player, who did not perform to best of his ability. First and foremost, the call intercepts may show that he was known to Ajit Chandila and Chandresh Patel and had even met Jitender Jain, the bookie but there is no proof whatsoever to show that Rs.60,00,000/ were paid to him. There is also no evidence that he did not perform in the match to the best of his capacity. Even if for the sake of arguments, it is accepted that Ankit Chavan did accept Rs.60,00,000/ but this in itself cannot lead to any inference that he did not play to best of his ability. The statements of his captain and other witnesses that he had under performed is merely conjectural without any basis. In any case, this does not amount to cheating as defined under section 415 IPC.* The entire evidence against the accused Ankit even if admitted, does not make him either a member of Core Crime Syndicate nor is he shown to have committed cheating. Prima facie, no offence is made out against him.* Section 415 of the Indian Penal Code deals with cheating
