IPL case: Police tortured us for confessions, claims bookies

Three bookies, arrested in the IPL spot-fixing scandal, on Tuesday alleged in a court that the Delhi police has extorted their confessions in the case by using "third degree torture and coercion".

New Delhi: Three bookies, arrested in the IPL spot-fixing scandal, on Tuesday alleged in a court here that the Delhi police has extorted their confessions in the case by using "third degree torture and coercion".

The court sought police`s response on the allegations by bookies Sunil Bhatia, Ramesh Vyas and Firoz Ansari who claimed that investigators had obtained their confessions by use of force. Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Kumar Jain directed the police to file its response by June 22. The allegations by the three accused assumes significance as recently, Umesh Goenka, the business partner of Rajasthan Royals owner Raj Kundra, had claimed before court that he was forced to name Kundra in cricket betting on instructions from Delhi Police personnel who had "traumatized" and "physically abused" him in illegal custody for five days. Goenka, whose statement has been recorded as a witness in the case, had also said that he was forced to name Kundra to save himself from physical torture and from being booked under the MCOCA, as allegedly threatened by the police. During the hearing, the court allowed the agency`s plea for sending the three bookies and two others, including bookie Deepak Kumar and ex-Ranji player Babu Rao Yadav, to 14 days of judicial custody till July 2. Apart from moving the plea to send the five to judicial custody, police also filed an application seeking issuance of fresh production warrant for bookie Ashwani Aggarwal, who was not produced before it on Tuesday as he is at present in Mumbai. Bhatia, Vyas, Yadav and Kumar were produced in court after expiry of their judicial custody, while Ansari was brought before the judge after expiry of his police custody. PTI