N Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra were indulging in betting in IPL matches, the Supreme Court said yesterday while holding them as “team officials” of their respective IPL teams Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR).
“The three-member committee headed Justice Mukul Mudgal has correctly appreciated the facts as emerging from the documents and the depositions of witnesses recorded by it and rightly come to the conclusion that Gurunath Meiyappan was a team official of CSK,” a bench headed by Justice TS Thakur said.
“That is so especially when India Cements Ltd who owns the team made a candid admission before us that Meiyappan was indeed a team official within the meaning of that expression under the rules. We, therefore, see no reason, for us to disagree or reverse the finding recorded by the Probe Committee on that aspect,” the bench, also comprising Jutice FMI Khalifulla, said. The apex court also said that probe committee has, on the basis of the material available to it, held that Meiyappan was indulging in betting and the findings did not call for interference. “We make it clear that given the nature of the proceedings entrusted to the Probe Committee and the standard of proof applicable to the same, we see no reason to disagree with the conclusion of the Probe Committee that Gurunath Meiyappan was indeed indulging in betting,” the bench said. Regarding RR’s co-owner Kundra, the bench said that probe panel, in its February 9, 2014 report, had referred to the statement of Kundra’s business partner Umesh Goenka in which he had stated that Kundra used to indulge in betting in IPL matches through him.
