IPL probe: Make entire Mudgal report public, petitioners urge SC

According to media reports, the petitioners, Aditya Verma and Cricket Association of Bihar urged the apex court to make the entire probe report, submitted by Justice Mukul Mudgal and his team, be made public.

They argued that suspended BCCI president N. Srinivasan should not be allowed to contest for another term.

The petitioners also demanded the termination of Srinivasan's company Chennai Cements-owned IPL team Chennai Super Kings since its official Gurunath Meiyippan has been indicted for betting.

Meiyappan is also the son-in-law of Srinivasan.

Supreme Court has been learnt will continue to examine the case on Thursday.

Meanwhile, India Cements shares closed 9 per cent lower on Tuesday.

The dip was a result of uncertainty over the future of Chennai Super Kings owned by India Cements of which, suspended BCCI president N. Srinivasan is the managing director.

The Supreme Court on Monday lambasted suspended Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief Narayanswamy Srinivasan for conflict of interest.

Making some stringent observations over the report submitted by the Mudgal panel, the judges said: "Some people who are in BCCI now own a team. Now it has become a mutual benefit society."

The two-member special bench said: "You can't make a distinction between BCCI and IPL. IPL a is a by-product of BCCI."

The BCCI lawyers argued that there is no conflict of interest because Bombay High Court had dismissed this issue.

But the top court said: "The ownership of team raises conflict of interest. President of BCCI has to run the show but you have a team which raises questions and it can't be wished away".

BCCI also argued that the Mudgal committee, that probed allegations of match fixing and betting in the 2013 edition of IPL, has cleared him of all charges levelled against him.

On this issue, the bench said: "One of the employees (Meiyappan) of your team was involved in betting. You have to reply because it will affect the position and the dignity of BCCI president position."

The judges remarked, "We take the findings of Justice Mudgal committee's report as gospel truth," SC said, adding that the board needs to rid the sport of fixing menace."

"If you allow these things to happen, then you are killing the game of cricket. Cricket must be played in its true spirit and should remain a gentleman's game," the bench observed.

ICC Chairman Srinivasan is seeking a nod from the Supreme Court to seek re-election as BCCI president during the BCCI Annual General Meeting (AGM), which is scheduled on December 17.

Supreme Court is examining the Justice Mukul Mudgal report on corruption in IPL 2013.

The Mudgal Committee, which had submitted its report on November 17 had said that N Srinivasan, along with four other BCCI officials, was aware of the violation of the Players Code of Conduct by a player mentioned as 'Individual 3' in Mudgal report, but no action was taken by any of them.

Earlier, on Nov 14, the Supreme Court had revealed the names of Srinivasan, his son-in-law Meiyappan, Kundra and Sundar Raman among the non-players, who were being probed when Justice Mudgal submitted his first report in February.

Srinivasan was indicted by the probe committee for not acting against the cricketer while his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra were found guilty of betting that could leave their teams CSK and RR in trouble.

BCCI President-in-exile N. Srinivasan is among 13 persons under the scanner.

It has been learnt that while the BCCI told the apex court they would take action against all those mentioned in the report through an in-house committe, the Supreme Court wasn't convinced and immediately questioned as to what was the guarantee that the members of the committee would not be corrupt.

Last week, the BCCI decided to stand behind N Srinivasan and IPL COO Sundar Raman, after an emergency working committee meeting on November 18.

The BCCI, aslo requested SC not to divulge the whole report as careers of cricketers will be affected.