IPL: Delhi Police arrest two men for illegal stadium entry, probe betting angle
Two men entered the Arun Jaitley Stadium here during Sunday’s IPL game between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals by allegedly obtaining accreditation cards fraudulently and were arrested and investigated if they their entry was to facilitate illegal betting and if they were part of a betting racket, the police said.
Rohit Meena, additional deputy commissioner of police (Central District), said those arrested are Manish Kansal, 38, and Krishan Garg, 26. Kansal belonged to Punjab and was posing as housekeeping staff while Garg hailed from North-West Delhi and posed as a health worker with a civic agency.
“On Sunday, our police staff inside the stadium found their behaviour suspicious. They observed them for a while before questioning them,” said the officer.
The police action came on a tip-off that some people may have entered the stadium on forged identity. On questioning it was found that their accreditation cards allowed them easy access to most parts of the stadium.
Meena said police custody of the two has been obtained and they were being questioned on how they managed to get accreditation cards. “We’re probing who all they were in contact with. That will help us determine their role,” he said.
It is learnt a probe is on into whether there were attempts to fix the game or carry out “pitch siding”, a mode of betting in which early inputs from the stadium about the outcome of each delivery would be an added advantage to a bettor outside, taking advantage of the lag of a few seconds before the action is relayed on TV.
Police are also trying to ascertain if more people had tried to enter the venue by similar fraudulent means. They suspect the arrested duo could have gained illegal entry on more than one occasion.
Matches in IPL 2021 were held before empty stadiums. Access was restricted to those connected directly with the match. Only those with accreditations cards were able to gain entry, a police officer said.
"We will be carrying out our internal investigation on how the guys got the accreditation card. DDCA doesn't employ housekeeping staff directly. We have hired a company which brings in its own people,” a DDCA official, who did not wish to be identified, said.
BCCI anti-corruption unit head, Shabir Hussein, when contacted, said on Wednesday that his team member too confronted a man during a game in Delhi. Hussein detailed the incident, but did not give a date or match.
“My team member found it suspicious that someone carrying an accreditation was speaking on the phone in a corner. When grilled, he ran away. We had his Aadhar card details which we handed over to Delhi police. They are now investigating the matter and have made some arrests. At the moment we suspect it was a case of pitch siding (providing ball-by-ball match information to bookies by taking advantage of the time lag in live telecast). We found no cases of anyone approaching players with any corrupt (intention) in this IPL,” Hussein said.
A DDCA official, who did not wish to be identified, said the association will probe the matter. “We will carry out our internal investigation on how the guys got the accreditation cards. DDCA doesn’t employ housekeeping staff directly. We have hired a company who brings in their people,” the official said.
