Sree spent Rs2.4 lakh on clothes & mobile

IANS/New Delhi

He wanted to quickly dispose of the cash which he got after fixing and apart from apparel and gifts spent it in parties, a police official said.

“Sreesanth went to buy clothes from Diesel’s showroom in Mumbai where he spent Rs1.95 lakh. From the money which he got from spot-fixing, he also bought a Blackberry Z10 phone for his girlfriend,” the official added.

“The cricketer made cash payment for the clothes,” said the official, adding that they also examined the store from where he purchased the apparel.

“He gifted the mobile phone to his girlfriend. We recovered it from her at the instance of Sreesanth. We also went to the house where Sreesanth’s girlfriend lived...”

Some of the apparel bought by Sreesanth in Mumbai and the Blackberry Z10 phone have been seized, he said.

After Sreesanth told investigators about the purchases from the money he got for spot-fixing, he was taken to Jaipur on Monday evening and brought back to Delhi yesterday to be presented in a court.

“He gifted the mobile phone to his girlfriend. We recovered it at the instance of Sreesanth. We also went to the house where Sreesanth’s girlfriend lived,” the official said.

The official said Sreesanth made all these purchases before the 15th Indian Premier League (IPL) match.

On Monday police recovered Rs20 lakh of suspected spot-fixing money from a house in Haryana’s Palwal. The house belonged to a relative of accused Ajit Chandila, Sreesanth’s IPL teammate from Rajasthan Royals. Chandila played Ranji Trophy for Haryana not so long back though he has been out of the state side for some time now.

Three Rajasthan team cricketers — Sreesanth, Chandila and Ankeet Chavan — and over a dozen bookies have been arrested in the ongoing investigations into the spot-fixing scam busted last week. It’s believed that some other players might have been involved in spot-fixing too but police say they are looking for more evidence.