Trio linked to other fake scouts: Cops

Mumbai: The Mumbai crime branch has found links between the trio that duped budding cricketers and those who were arrested in a similar case by the Marine Drive police in October. Both the groups are part of a larger racket that operates in smaller teams, said property cell officers.

The earlier arrested accused were held for targeting players at Oval Maidan, leading to the arrest of Ravindra Gupta alias Ravinder Garg, Harvinder Singh and Satendra Singh. The crime branch officials said that the accused Vijay Barate (40), Jeevan Mukadam (26) and Dinesh More (24) were in contact with them.

“Several calls were exchanged between both the groups and they were targeting players in different parts of the city. Since the link has also been found with Delhi and Punjab based bookies, the mystery behind the usage of funds has deepened further,” said a crime branch officer.

Barate, Mukadam and More were produced in the Esplanade Court on Saturday that remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days. The crime branch officials sought for further custody of the trio, however, they were not given their custody further.

The officials have identified the three bookies who were working closely with the arrested trio as R.S. Dindwal, Shubham Jain from Punjab-Chandigarh belt and Priyank Saxena from Delhi. Investigators said that they have past criminal record.

“The bank accounts of the arrested trio are now being scanned for ascertaining the money trail. Barate has been claiming meanwhile that the money was spent on the travel and arranging tournaments however that doesn’t seem to be true,” added the crime branch officer. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has also questioned the trio, and its anti-corruption unit is also conducting a parallel probe. The officials said that the names of those arrested and others are under the scanner and figure on the target list of the BCCI.