BCCI Forms 3-Member Probe Panel To Investigate IPL betting and spot-fixing Scandal Sunday April 20,2014

The BCCI on Sunday April 20,2014 came up with a three-member panel to investigate the IPL betting and spot-fixing scandal. The decision was taken at the emergency Working Committee meeting held at the board's headquarters in Mumbai this afternoon.

• Former Calcutta High Court chief justice JN Patel and
• Ravi Shastri and
• Former CBI director RK Raghavan

will be part of the probe panel to investigate the matter.

The BCCI will instruct its lawyers to propose these names to the Supreme Court on Tuesday April 22,201

The Supreme Court of India(SCI)while turning down N Srinivasan's fresh plea to return to the helm of the board's affairs as its elected chief, has ruled that he cannot be given back the BCCI's reins until he comes out clean in a probe conducted against him and 12 others, including India-capped cricketers, whose names have been mentioned by Justice Mudgal Committee report in the IPL corruption scandal.

The Supreme Court of India(SCI)also put the ball back in the BCCI's court for future course of action to probe the damning contents of the Mudgal Committee report on its own through appropriate means.

On April 16,2014 the Supreme Court of India(SCI) had said the BCCI should conduct a probe against Srinivasan and 12 others in the betting and spot-fixing scandal to maintain its institutional autonomy as the court cannot "close its eyes" to the allegations made by the Justice Mudgal committee.

A Bench of justices AK Patnaik and FM Ibrahim Kalifulla, however, had expressed reservations over a SIT or CBI probe, saying that institutional autonomy of the board has to be maintained and a committee constituted by the BCCI to look into the issue would be preferred.

The BCCI and its new probe panel suffered a blow with the Supreme Court asking the Mukul Mudgal panel if it could continue inquiring into the scandal, if given investigating powers and the assistance of a national probe agency.

Mukul Mudgal expressed his readiness while talking to reporters, but will be informing the court regarding this only on April 29,2014 the next date of hearing. 

The Bench will also make it clear if it is rejecting the BCCI's new probe panel comprising of Ravi Shastri, former Calcutta HC chief justice J.N. Patel and ex-CBI director R.K. Raghavan only on that day.

The thought of going back to the Mudgal panel came following stiff opposition regarding the names in the new BCCI panel by petitioner Aditya Verma.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the senior lawyer representing Verma, alleged that Shastri was a paid employee of the BCCI and had toed the Board line on various issues in the past.

He said Justice Patel was related by marriage to interim BCCI president Shivlal Yadav, and that Raghavan had appeared as a witness in front of the Mudgal panel and was also a secretary of a cricket club in Chennai, which is affiliated to the Srinivasan-led TNCA.