The Madras High Court on Friday warned IPS officer G. Sampath Kumar of dismissing his case to restrain the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from conducting Indian Premier League (IPL) matches, without putting in place precautionary measures to prevent betting and match-fixing, if no one appears on behalf of him during the next hearing.
When the public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by Mr. Kumar in 2018 was listed before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu, senior counsel P.R. Raman, representing the IPL franchisee Chennai Super Kings (CSK), said the case filed by the IPS officer was vexatious and unnecessary.
Mr. Raman told the court that the Supreme Court had in 2015 appointed a committee, headed by former Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha, in connection with the IPL betting scandal. The recommendations made by the committee had been accepted by the Supreme Court and, therefore, the present PIL petition was not needed, he said.
The senior counsel further pointed out that the IPS officer had included the Centre, the BCCI as well as all IPL franchisees as respondents to his case. Since no one appeared on behalf of the petitioner, the judges directed the Registry to list the case on July 26 and made it clear that it would be dismissed if no one appears on that day too.
In his affidavit, Mr. Kumar had claimed to have unearthed the 2013 IPL match-fixing scam while investigating a fake passport case in his capacity as the Superintendent of Police, Q Branch CID (Internal Security). Further probe revealed the alleged involvement of some top players from the Indian cricket team, he had claimed.
