BCCI prez Srinivasan leaves for Mumbai

Embattled BCCI President N Srinivasan, whose son-in-law and owner of Chennai Super Kings Gurunath Meiyappan was arrested last night for his alleged involvement in IPL betting scandal, left here for Mumbai.

Srinivasan, whose departure came on a day when the BCCI is set to meet in Kolkata tonight against the backdrop of the spot-fixing controversy, declined to talk to the waiting mediapersons.

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Meiyappan was arrested by the Mumbai crime branch after nearly two-and-a-half hours of questioning that began at 9.30 pm. The 35-year-old top honcho of CSK, twice IPL champions, was in the eye of a huge storm after actor and TV reality show winner Vindoo Dara Singh, arrested for his alleged links to bookies, admitted to having placed bets on his behalf.

Vindoo, winner of reality show Bigg Boss season 3 and son of late wrestler-actor Dara Singh, was allegedly in "frequent touch" with Meiyappan during the IPL matches and was claimed to have told Mumbai crime branch that the CSK owner had lost Rs 1 crore through betting.

The crime branch, according to sources, had call data records of conversations between Vindoo and Meiyappan and they are learnt to have confronted the two with the transcripts. "We have interrogated Gurunath based on information we have.

We have gone through the questioning of him in detail and after due deliberations, we have come to the conclusion that there is evidence of his involvement in the offence (of IPL betting) we are investigating. We have placed him under arrest", Joint Commissioner (Crime) of Mumbai Police Himanshu Roy had told reporters late last night.