The Bengaluru City Crime Branch arrested the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) Management Committee member Sudhendra Shinde in the Karnataka Premier League (KPL) match-fixing case.
The Central Crime Branch (CCB), which is probing the case, conducted a search operation at Shinde’s home in Bengaluru’s Domlur area at around 11 am on Tuesday. The search operation went on till 3 pm. “We took him in for questioning, and he was arrested on Wednesday,” the police said.
He is allegedly connected to betting and fixing. The CCB received permission from the court to officially conduct a search warrant. Its officers seized his two laptops, documents and pen drive.
A police officer said that after the raid he was taken into custody and interrogated. Shinde runs a cricket club from which he selects players for KPL. The police officials also said that he was suspected to have been a part of the fixing and betting racket.
“We took him in for questioning after the raid. He runs a cricket club in Jayanagar, Bangalore and would select players from there for KPL teams. Shinde, too, is part of the racket,” a police official said at a press meet.
The sparks of KPL scam had recently gone international when the CCB asked Abhimanyu Mithun to appear before the crime branch for interrogation. He also became the first international cricketer to be quizzed in this fixing scandal. Mithun had played four Tests and five ODIs for Team India.
Shinde is a former coach of KPL for the team Belagavi Panthers whose owner was Ashfaq Ali Thara, the first to be arrested by the CCB. Thara is currently in judicial custody in the central jail. He allegedly placed bets in Dubai. Shinde is one of the nine suspects to have been arrested by the police.
Until now, Belagavi Panthers owner, Bhavesh Bafna, Bengaluru Blasters players, Nishant Singh Shekhawat and M Vishwanath, along with their bowling coach, Vinu Prasad, Bellary Tuskers captain, CM Gautam, and its spinner Abrar Kazi and international bookie, Sayyam Gulati, have been arrested.
