‘Dawood Ibrahim involved in cricket betting in India, Pak’

In an exclusive telephonic conversation with Millennium Post, Ali Budesh, an underworld don revealed the role of Dawood Ibrahim in cricket betting in India and Pakistan. He also spoke of the active involvement of the D-Company in the present IPL spot-fixing scandal.

Budesh told this reporter that Dawood's brother, Anees Ibrahim alias Manoj Metro, had a vital role in IPL-6 spot-fixing. Anees would receive instructions from Dawood, and pass them on to top-rung bookies, two of whom, Ramesh Vyas and Tikku Mandi, have been held by Mumbai police. 'Sunil Dubai, who is hiding in Dubai, is a close aide of Dawood's brother,' Budesh added.

In a recent edition, Millennium Post had revealed the criminal history of Sunil Dubai. Sources in Delhi police’s Special Cell also claimed that he had attended several meetings with D-company. Jiju Janardhan, a distant relative of S Sreesanth and a bookie, was a close aide of Sunil, and had lured several cricketers to spot-fixing.

'Ramesh Vyas, another bookie who was apprehended by the Mumbai Crime Branch is allegedly the head of the hawala transactions involved in the IPL. He would fund bookies to make the spot fixing payments to the players, arrange for girls to lure vulnerable cricketers and buy expensive gifts for them,' Budesh said of Vyas.

Before Sunil Dubai, Budesh said,  Haji Ashraf from Pakistan initiated the process of betting in cricket. In the 1990s, he also known for smuggling gold. Sharad Shetty was another fixer, who was killed by Chotta Rajan. Shetty used to trap senior players and he had fixed entire matches on several occasions. However, Ashraf was allegedly killed in a police encounter.

'Then in 1997, the golden era of Dawood Ibrahim started and within a short span of time, he became the father of cricket betting,' Budesh said. Budesh contradicted Chotta Shakeel's claim that D-Company is not involved in the IPL spot-fixing, and said, ' Shakeel is a close aide of Dawood. You can even call him Dawood’s spokesperson. So why would he name Dawood.'

Budesh said, 'Vinod Asrani alias Vinod Chembur, a close aide of Chhota Rajan who used to deal all the money collection in Chembur and was arrested in  Mumbai journalist J Dey’s murder case, is currently in jail. So Chhota Rajan is inactive and that is why Dawood and his aides are handling the betting.