Rajasthan Royals Co-Owner Raj Kundra Had Contact With Bookie, Reveals IPL investigator

B B Mishra, the lead investigator in the IPL probe, has insisted co-owner of Rajasthan Royals Raj Kundra had contacts with bookie.

Kundra is currently serving a life ban imposed on him after he was found guilty in the 2013 IPL betting scandal. In 2015, a panel appointed by the Supreme Court suspended Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals after finding them guilty in an illegal betting and match-fixing probe. Both franchises returned to the league earlier this year.

However, their owners Kundra and Gurunath Meiyappan of Super Kings were suspended from all cricket-related activities for life. But time and again, Kundra has denied his involvement in the case. He has also rubbished the reports suggesting that he was in contact with a bookie.

But Misra has now revealed that Kundra could not deny much when he reminded the franchise co-owner about a ‘gift’ he had accepted. Kundra opened up on realising that the bookie had already spilled the beans during interrogation.

“When Kundra was interrogated, he had initially denied everything. Then we confronted him with the version we got from the bookie. It was then that he admitted he was in touch (with the bookie). He (Kundra) had taken a gift from the bookie,” Misra told The Indian Express.

“He (Kundra) said he did not know the bookie. But his mobile had the number of that bookie. He explained that it was an undesirable contact and he had to store it so if a call comes he will know that it is a bookie and he would not pick it up. Fair enough…but then he would not have accepted a gift. When you say he is an undesirable contact and ‘I don’t want to talk to him’, why did you accept a gift from him? Why did you allow him to come near you? This was a contradiction. So I reminded Raj Kundra of the gift he took,” Misra added.

Kundra then told the news outlet that the gift was a 10-gram gold chain for his new-born and panjiri (a wheat-based sweet). He also said that he had declined to accept the gift but the bookie left it with the watchman at his residence.

“I had no idea this person was a bookie as it’s not written on anyone’s face. I met him first at a friend’s party. He piled on and was over-friendly and asked for IPL tickets for his son, which my bodyguard gave him. Once he turned up at my house with panjiri and a gold chain for my new-born. I told him I was on my way out and didn’t even entertain him. I declined but he left the panjiri and chain with my watchman. I never had any dealings with this person, other than on these two occasions,” Kundra claimed.

Misra joined the IPL probe in 2014 in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal. The former IPS officer had received a three-page note which contained allegations against 13 people, including four officials and nine players.

Misra, meanwhile, further said that Kundra’s contradicting statatements — to the Justice Mudgal committee and to Misra — meant he was attempting to mislead the probe.

“Whatever he told the Justice Mudgal committee initially turned out to be false. I am repeatedly saying that he may not have used the bookie for cricket or any betting or maybe he was not passing on information. But the fact remains that he was in contact with a bookie. He was misleading the (Mudgal) committee. To be in touch with a bookie, by itself was incorrect,” Misra said.

“In fact, I told him that if he is still denying, I will bring that gentleman and confront him,” he added.

Earlier this year, Kundra had filed a petition in the Supreme Court to revoke the life ban. He had taken the decision after a Right To Information (RTI) reply from the Delhi police giving him a clean chit