No links with Dawood or Chhota Shakeel: Chandila

New Delhi: Suspended cricketer Ajit Chandila, arrested in connection with the IPL spot-fixing scandal, on Monday claimed in a Delhi court that he has been "falsely implicated" in the case and there was no evidence of his alleged links with either underworld don Dawood Ibrahim or Chhota Shakeel.

Arguing on the bail plea of Chandila, who is presently in judicial custody, his counsel told the court that his client was a "successful cricketer" and the police has not been able to place any evidence that he was having any common intention to commit such crime. "There is no link with the alleged perpetrators that is Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel...I am a sportsperson. Two of the other sportsperson (S Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan) have been granted bail. I was playing for Rajasthan Royals. I am a successful cricketer. "They are falsely implicating me. I was performing well. This is a false case just to implicate me," advocate Rakesh Kumar, appearing for Chandila, told Additional Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma. The arguments were advanced when the court was hearing the bail pleas of nine arrested accused, including Chandila, who are presently in custody. During the arguments, Chandila`s counsel told the court that provisions of stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) were "mischievously added" by special cell of Delhi police against the accused so that they cannot get bail in the case. His lawyer argued that police was not able to satisfy another trial court, which had granted bail to 18 accused in the case earlier, as to how provisions of MCOCA were invoked. Besides Chandila, the court also heard the bail pleas of bookies Jitender Kumar Jain, Ashwani Agarwal, Ramesh Vyas, Deepak Kumar, Sunil Bhatia, Firoz Farid Ansari, ex-Ranji player Baburao Yadav and Chandra Prakash Jain alias Chandresh Jain, who was allegedly accepting bets by the name of Jupiter. Public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan would advance his arguments on the bail pleas on August 30, the next date of hearing. PTI