MUMBAI // Mumbai police filed charges on Saturday against the son-in-law of India’s cricket chief for gambling, cheating and conspiracy, in a scandal that has engulfed the country’s Twenty20 league.
Police formally charged Gurunath Meiyappan, former owner of Chennai Super Kings, the Indian Premier League (IPL) team, and son-in-law of N Srinivasan, chairman of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, reports said.
They also charged Bollywood actor Vindu Dara Singh and 20 others, and named Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf along with 15 alleged Pakistani bookies as “wanted accused”, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said.
PTI cited sources saying Singh and Meiyappan were charged in connection with illegal betting and not for spot-fixing, in which part of a cricket game, but not the result, is fixed.
Meiyappan was charged under the Gambling Act, the Information Technology Act and various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including for forgery, cheating, criminal conspiracy and breach of contract, PTI reported.
He allegedly handed critical information regarding his team to Vindu Dara, who is accused of passing it on to bookies.
After the 11,500-page chargesheet was filed by the crime branch, a hearing was set for November 21.
The IPL scandal emerged this year when three Rajasthan Royals players were arrested in May, along with scores of bookies, as part of a police investigation into spot-fixing, which caused outrage among fans in the cricket-mad nation.
Srinivasan stepped down in June – but remains officially in the post – after Meiyappan was arrested and later released on bail.
He has also distanced himself from Meiyappan.
“This is a matter for Mr Gurunath Meiyappan to deal with. If he is chargesheeted, the law will take it own course,” Srinivasan told reporters in Chennai.
“It is up to him to defend his position, it has got nothing to do with me.”
Gambling is mostly illegal in India, but betting on cricket matches thrives through networks of underground bookies.
Sreesanth, the former India Test fast bowler, and his Rajasthan Royals’ teammate Ankeet Chavan were banned from cricket for life this month after being found guilty of spot-fixing.
Siddharth Trivedi, their teammate, was suspended for one year after being found guilty of the lesser charge of not informing officials about approaches made by bookmakers.
They are among 39 people who have also been charged separately in court by Delhi police in the corruption scandal.
sports@thenational.ae
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
The specs
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Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
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The Bio
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Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Shooting Ghosts: A U.S. Marine, a Combat Photographer, and Their Journey Back from War by Thomas J. Brennan and Finbarr O’Reilly
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
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Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
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F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
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More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
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The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
The specs
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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3.
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UAE
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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South Korea
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21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Yuval Noah Harari, Jonathan Cape
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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TCL INFO
Teams:
Punjabi Legends Owners: Inzamam-ul-Haq and Intizar-ul-Haq; Key player: Misbah-ul-Haq
Pakhtoons Owners: Habib Khan and Tajuddin Khan; Key player: Shahid Afridi
Maratha Arabians Owners: Sohail Khan, Ali Tumbi, Parvez Khan; Key player: Virender Sehwag
Bangla Tigers Owners: Shirajuddin Alam, Yasin Choudhary, Neelesh Bhatnager, Anis and Rizwan Sajan; Key player: TBC
Colombo Lions Owners: Sri Lanka Cricket; Key player: TBC
Kerala Kings Owners: Hussain Adam Ali and Shafi Ul Mulk; Key player: Eoin Morgan
Venue Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Format 10 overs per side, matches last for 90 minutes
When December 14-17
THE SPECS
Engine: 4.4-litre V8
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 523hp
Torque: 750Nm
Price: Dh469,000
Brief scores:
Huesca 0
Real Madrid 1
Bale 8'
