New Delhi: The Supreme Court said Friday that BCCI ombudsman Justice (retd) DK Jain will reconsider within three months the quantum of punishment for former Indian cricketer S Sreesanth for his alleged involvement in the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal.
A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and KM Joseph said this while hearing an application filed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). BCCI said that since its disciplinary committee, which had earlier dealt with Sreesanth’s matter, is no longer operational the matter be referred to the ombudsman appointed by the apex court.
The top court march 15 had set aside the BCCI disciplinary committee’s order imposing a life ban on Sreesanth for his alleged involvement in the matter. The court had then said that the disciplinary committee may reconsider within three months the quantum of punishment to be given to Sreesanth.
The top court had also said that its verdict will have no effect on the criminal proceedings pending against Sreesanth in the Delhi High Court, where the Delhi Police has challenged a trial court’s order discharging all accused, including him in the IPL spot-fixing case.
A single-judge bench of the Kerala High Court had lifted the life ban imposed on the 35-year-old cricketer by the BCCI and set aside all proceedings against him initiated by the board. The division bench of the high court later restored the ban on a petition filed by the BCCI against the single-judge bench’s order.
The BCCI had February 28 told the apex court that the life ban imposed on Sreesanth was ‘fully sustainable in law’ as he had ‘tried to influence’ a match.
Sreesanth had earlier claimed in the top court that the life ban was ‘completely unfair’ and the Delhi Police had ‘continuously tortured’ him in custody to extract confession of his involvement in the case.
The former cricketer, who was arrested and later discharged by a trial court here in July 2015, claimed he had to confess his involvement in the alleged crime as police tortured him in custody and threatened to implicate his family in the case. The Delhi Police had arrested Sreesanth, along with cricketers Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, and others on charges of spot-fixing.
PTI