The players of the Karnataka Premiere League confessed of match-fixing. They said, they were honey trapped.
By Labani Mahanandy
The Karnataka Premiere League players were forced for match-fixing as they were “honey-trapped”, says Bhaskar Rao, Commissioner of Police.
One day after the Bangalore Police issued notice to both Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) and Karnataka Premiere League (KPL) franchises, the seven suspected players confessed of being “honey-trapped” during the investigation. Bhaskar Rao added that the cheerleaders were used to honey-trap them.
Out of the seven team owners, the co-owners of Bijapur Bulls and Ballari Tuskers had come for investigation. The owner of Belagavi Panthers, Ashfaq Ali Thara, is absconding. Today, some officials of KSCA were interrogated too. Inspector Prakash was the in-charge for the interrogation and Mr Sandeep Patil was the head of the interrogation team.
Yesterday, the star player of Bijapur Bulls, K.C. Cariappa was interrogated for over eight hours at the Central Crime Branch (CCB).
CCB last called him on November 15 regarding the case.
Cariappa who is a player in Bijapur Bulls, came to fame after he played for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) when he was auctioned at six times more than his base price in 2015. He has also played for Kings XI Punjab previously.
“Another KPL team owner was also summoned by the CCB, but he didn’t turn up,” a source informed The SoftCopy.
C. M Gautam, the captain of Ballari Tuskers and his teammate, Abrar Qazi, were accused of taking Rs.20 lakhs for slow batting in the KPL final match played between Ballari Tuskers and Hubli Tigers on August 31, according to CCB. Both the players were arrested on November 7.
International bookie, Sayyam—on whose name West Indies had issued a LOC—was arrested on November 10.
Police Commissioner, Bhaskar Rao, said that strict action will be taken against this all the people involved in this match-fixing case.
