Investigations into the spot-fixing case have revealed that more than Rs. 250 crore ($42M) in betting transactions were being made per Indian Premier League match "through a network of bookies operating under the protection of conduits of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his lieutenant Chhota Shakeel," according to Devesh K. Pandey of THE HINDU. The three top bookies, Ramesh Vyas, Ashwini Aggrawal alias Tinku Mandi, and Feroze Ansari, "have been found to have direct links with Javed Chutani, a close aide of the two underworld dons, said to be operating from Mumbai." He "is yet to be arrested." The investigations have also revealed that Mandi had made over a dozen trips to Dubai "during which he is suspected to have held meetings with bookies operating from there." Interestingly, Mandi was also maintaining an account with the website betfare.com, "a sub-account of another bookie operating under the codename Chhota Nagpur" (THE HINDU, 6/25). The PTI reported Rauf, "who is being investigated in the IPL spot-fixing scandal, and long-serving New Zealander Billy Bowden" were Tuesday dropped from the Int'l Cricket Council Elite Panel of Umpires after an annual review of their performance. Rauf, who is being probed for allegedly taking expensive gifts from suspected bookies, and Bowden "have been replaced by former Test cricketers Richard Illingworth and Paul Reiffel" (PTI, 6/25).
