New Delhi: Fast bowler S Sreesanth, who was released from Tihar jail yesterday on bail, said the last 27 days have taught him a lot and reiterated that he was innocent.
“I am very happy. I should thank my lawyer. It was a testing phase for me, the last 27 days. I believe in the Indian judiciary and I am sure my innocence will be proved,” Sreesanth told reporters in a press conference here after coming out of jail.
“I played the game in the right spirit. I’ll abide by the process of law. I won’t forget the days spent in jail. The last 27 days have taught me a lot. I can say I totally believe in Indian judiciary. My innocence will be proven soon,” said Sreesanth.
A Delhi court on Monday granted bail to suspended cricketer Sreesanth, his Rajasthan Royals teammate Ankeet Chavan and 17 bookies who were booked under the provisions of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the IPL spot fixing scandal.
Additional Session Judge Vinay Kumar Khanna granted bail to the accused on a personal bond of Rs50,000 each with one surety of the like amount. The court said granting bail to accused indicted police for slapping stringent provisions of MCOCA and that there was no prima facie evidence to try them under the act.
Another Rajasthan Royals cricketer, Ajit Chandila, and six others had not applied for bail. Delhi Police have so far arrested 26 people, including Sreesanth and two of his Rajasthan Royals teammates, in connection with the case.
Meanwhile, former cricket board president Inderjit Singh Bindra has in a passionate appeal to his buddy-turned-foe Jagmohan Dalmiya recalled the spirit the two showed in addressing some glaring inadequacies in the board administration and urged him to show the same zeal as interim chief in eradicating the ills in the system now.
As a first step, Bindra asked Dalmiya, who was board secretary when he was president, to suspend both the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals pending inquiry into the alleged betting and spot-fixing.
In an open letter to Dalmiya on the eve of the working committee meeting, Bindra called upon his old friend to clean the mess in Indian cricket now that he has chance to do and pledged his unstinted support. “Your professed desire to clean up the system has my unequivocal support. It is indeed encouraging to note your assertions to the public. Nostalgically, it reminds me of the Jaggu of yore, and gives hope that the old spark will ignite to arrest the decay and mitigate the wrongs wrought on the game of cricket,” said Bindra in the letter.
Bindra said he has full faith in Dalmiya’s “ability to fight malpractices and wrongdoings, my hopes are with you”. “Moreover, both IPL teams under a cloud should be suspended till the completion of a probe and inquiry. They should not be allowed to participate in the CLT20 and no funds out of the central revenues should be released to them.”
Bindra also pointed out to Dalmiya that the two-member commission comprising retired judges R Balasubranian and Jayaram T Chouta are not fit for the job since they are close to P Raman, who is the lawyer for Super Kings team principal Gurunath Meiyappan, who is also son-in-law of N.Srinivasan.
IANS
