The Newshour Debate: Spot Fixing - First direct link to a franchisee ( Part 3 of 3)

As the investigation net for the IPL spot fixing scandal widens, now the BCCI has been put in a spot. With more murky dealings emerging during the custodial interrogation of Vindoo Randhawa, Mumbai police probing the IPL betting scandal may question Gurunath Meiyappan, CEO of Chennai Super Kings who is also the son-in-law of Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) Chief N Srinivasan, with whom the arrested actor was in "frequent touch". This is the first direct link to a franchisee. Son of wrestler and actor Dara Singh, Vindoo, according to Joint Commissioner (crime) Himanshu Roy, was deeply involved in betting, earning Rs 17 lakh through the banned activity this year, and had even helped two bookies escape from India. Vindoo, an actor, sources in the crime branch said, had told his interrogators that he came into contact with Meiyappan, who comes from an affluent south Indian family which is into film production, 5-6 years ago. According to Roy, the tainted actor had admitted to having facilitated the escape of two bookies, Pawan Jaipur and Sanjay Jaipur, to Dubai from Mumbai on May 17. After the Mumbai police busted an international betting racket with the arrest of key bookie Ramesh Vyas and three others on May 14, Pawan and Sanjay had gone underground to evade arrest. According to the Mumbai crime branch, Vindoo made frequent calls to Meiyappan. The actor's Juhu residence was searched and three mobile phones belonging to Pawan, a laptop and an iPad of Vindoo were confiscated and data were being analysed.

In a debate moderated by TIMES NOW's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, panelists -- Latika Khaneja, Director, Collage Sports Management; Kishore Bhimani, Senior Sports Journalist; Mihir Bose, Former Sports Editor, BBC and Author; K. Hariharan, Former International Umpire (Umpired for IPL matches in 2008, 2009 & 2010); Rajesh Kalra, Chief Editor, Times Internet Ltd; Ashwini Nachappa, Former Athlete; Ashok Pandit, Filmmaker and Social Activist; David Callaghan, Former