Players got bookies to Rajasthan Royals parties, Kundra tells police

Delhi police sources say that they would question Raj Kundra again and have told him not to leave the country, reports Vicky Nanjappa

Raj Kundra, one of the owners of the Indian Premier League franchise Rajasthan Royals, is another big fish being questioned regarding the spot-fixing scandal. 

Kundra, a British national, may have claimed that he is helping the Delhi police clean up the game, but sources say that the police is slowly building a case against him.

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While denying outright that he had anything to do with spot- or match-fixing, Kundra did admit to the police that it was the players who had invited bookies to the after-parties.

Delhi Police sources told rediff.com that they decided to question Kundra following the statements made by the arrested players and bookies that some within the team management were aware of what was going on.

Based on what Kundra told the police about the bookies being invited  by some of the players, the police now want to know the extent of the interaction and association between the management and the bookies.

Kundra, when questioned about the same, is alleged to have told the police that he placed bets on games since the past two years, but was unaware of any sort of spot-fixing that was going on.

He quoted from the official complaint the team management had given on the issue and also told the police that action had already been contemplated against those players.

The Delhi police asked him whether the bookies spoke about spot-fixing and the nature of their association with the Rajasthan Royals players. But Kundra insisted that he had no knowledge of what the players had to do with the bookies.

Delhi police sources say that they would question Kundra again and have told him not to leave the country since there is more to this episode.

"It not some kind of secret that betting in cricket is illegal. If Kundra does admit that some of the players had called over the bookies to the team party, why was this permitted despite there being a proper code of conduct by the cricket board in place?" said sources in the Delhi police.

"It is the duty of the team management to prevent the presence of bookies among the players, and this is something we need to examine deeply and hence there is a need to question Kundra further.

"We would also question more members of the team and the management on this issue," they added.