Gurunath Meiyappan in dock after voice samples match with tapped phone conversations
Chennai: The voice sample in conversations taped by the Mumbai police have been confirmed as that of Gurunath Meiyappan, once a team official of the IPL cricket franchise Chennai Super Kings. Gurunath and his cricket betting contact Vindoo Dara Singh, who had both been chargesheeted and jailed by the Mumbai police last year, were the main players in a major betting and spot and match-mixing scandal that broke out in IPL season 6.
A television news channel reported that a Central Forensic Science Laboratory source had confirmed that the voices on the ‘IPLGate’ tapes had been forensically matched with those of Gurunath, the controversial team official and son-in-law of ICC president N. Srinivasan and the minor Bollywood figure Vindoo Dara Singh.
Gurunath was charged with having allegedly passed on crucial match information to bookies and placed bets on IPL matches through the son of a former film star.
The matching of voices on tapes is a critical step in the process by which the entire scandal is being probed by the Justice Mudgal-led probe committee.
However, Gurunath had refused to testify before the commission on the grounds that the matter was sub judice.
The Mudgal report is slated to be placed before the Supreme Court on Oct. 30.
The probe report is unlikely to contain any evidence of wrongdoing against ICC chairman N. Srinivasan but the team his company India Cements used to own fully as a division of the firm’s operations could be in trouble because of a team official who, contrary to facts, was being passed off as a cricket enthusiast rather than team principal and who indulged in betting and other activities.
Mr Srinivasan has been barred from acting as the elected President of the BCCI by the Supreme Court during the pendency of the probe.
While he may emerge unscathed, according to informed sources associated with the probe, the fate of his team and that of his son-in-law may be hanging in the balance until the top court decides and passes orders after taking into consideration the Mudgal report.
