Where's Meiyappan? Mumbai cops summon CSK boss on Friday

Chennai Super Kings CEO Gurunath Meiyappan has been asked to appear before the Mumbai Police's crime branch on Friday in connection with the IPL spot-fixing and betting scandal.

Officials of the Mumbai police, who were in Chennai on Thursday morning to quiz Meyiyappan, are believed to have served summons to the Chennai Super Kings boss through his secretary at his Boat Club residence.

Meiyappan, son-in-law of Board of Control for Cricket in India president N Srinivasan, has been asked to appear before the Mumbai police's crime branch between 1100 and 1700 IST, Mumbai Police Joint Commissioner Crime Branch Himanshu Roy said.

Mystery shrouds the whereabouts of Meiyappan, as some reports said he left for Kolkata, while others said he stayed back in New Delhi after witnessing Tuesday's first play-off between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians.

According to the police, the call records of Randhawa, son of late wrestler-actor Dara Singh, who was arrested in the IPL betting case on Tuesday, indicated that he made several calls to Meiyappan.

"Vindoo made several calls to Meiyappan of the Chennai IPL. We may call the person in question to ascertain the reasons why these frequent calls were made," an officer involved in the probe had said.

The actor was arrested for his alleged association with bookies. Vindoo, winner of reality television show Bigg Boss season 3, was allegedly in touch with some of the bookies arrested in the scandal.

He also reportedly admitted to having facilitated the escape of two bookies, Pawan Jaipur and Sanjay Jaipur, to Dubai from Mumbai on May 17.

Both had gone underground to evade arrest after the Mumbai police busted the international betting racket with the arrest of key bookie Ramesh Vyas and three others on May 14.

The IPL found itself embroiled in controversy after pacer Shantakumaran Sreesanth and two of his Rajasthan Royals team mates, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandilya, were arrested last week by the police, which claimed they received up to Rs 60 lakh from bookies for bowling one manipulated over.

The trio were arrested by a special cell of the Delhi police in Mumbai last Thursday for allegedly indulging in spot-fixing in at least three IPL matches as per arrangements with bookies having underworld connections abroad.

Meanwhile, the Delhi police has issued 'Look Out' notices against some persons in connection with the scandal and asked official IPL broadcaster 'SetMax' to provide raw footage of all matches involving Rajasthan Royals.

Sources said as some people linked to the bookies are absconding, 'Look Out' notices were served against them to ensure that they do not leave the country.

Police refused to identify the persons, saying it may hamper the probe.