The District Court of Kathmandu has ordered that the three persons who were arrested on the charge of spot-fixing be released on bail.
Achyutamani Nepaune, the head of the District Public Prosecutor's Office, informed that after the detention hearing held on Wednesday, the single bench of Judge Rajendra Kumar Shrestha ordered Mahbub Alam, Mohammad Adil Ansari, and Nitesh Gupta to be released on bail of Rs 3 lakh.
The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police started an investigation into the suspicion of spot-fixing in the Nepal T20 tournament held in Kirtipur, Kathmandu from December 9 to 27. During that time, the police arrested Alam, Adil Ansari, and Nitesh Gupta. Naveen Kandel and Ravi Majhi, who the police claimed were involved in the fixing, are absconding.
The District Public Prosecutor's Office, Kathmandu, filed charges of spot-fixing against five people in the Kathmandu District Court on Monday. Among those arrested, Mohammad Adil Alam played T20 league for Janakpur Royals. He bowled the first ball no ball and the second ball wide in the twelfth over of the match between Kathmandu Knights and Janakpur Royals. That way, he got out with a total of 13 runs.
In the sixth over of the match between Janakpur Royals and Far West United, he added a total of 15 runs by making the first ball no ball and the second ball bid. It has been revealed from the investigation that a person named Sameer Sheikh offered him Rs 1 lakh for playing no balls and wides through WhatsApp. In the statement given by the public prosecutor in Rohbar, he also admitted that the proposal had been received. However, he has denied involvement in collusion.
The police arrested him and investigated, saying that the activity as proposed in both the games was not just a coincidence. According to the police, during the scoreboard and video analysis conducted by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) of the International Cricket Council, the nature of the first ball of the over was found to be a no ball and then a bid ball.
Record-breaking ex-national cricketer Mahbub Alam offered the players of Pokhara Avengers and Far West United A/E for reconciliation.
According to the instructions of another defendant, Ravi Majhi, he proposed collusion with the players. According to Alam's own statement, he offered to pay NRP 6 lakh if he was dismissed by scoring less than 5 runs while batting or if he allowed the opponent to score more than 10 runs in one over.
It is mentioned in the research report that he will also be given two lakh per player for that. However, both players rejected his proposal.
Among the defendants, Nitesh Gupta, a cricketer from Birgunj, proposed a match to one of the Pokhara Avengers players. However, he said that when he went to the Great Himalayan Cricket Academy in Hattiban and made an offer, he was scolded and sent away. In the public prosecutor's statement to the police in Rohbar, Gupta said, 'My mother's brother-in-law Birender Shah had to come to my house and meet her. He said that we should talk about cricket, so I sent a message and asked him where he could meet.'
According to that, he said that he came to Kathmandu from Birgunj and met Shah in Lalitpur. In that sequence, Shah said that if he 'hit wickets' in the league, he can earn better.
He claimed that he did not even know what he was going to talk about before that. He has claimed that he only met Saha with that player. According to an officer of the bureau, the owner of Nepal Sports Venture Pvt. Ltd., the owner of the Kathmandu Knights team, is Navin Kandel, but it has been seen that the money for the accommodation of the team's players and officials at the Yak & Yeti Hotel has been paid from India. This is considered suspicious by the investigating officers.
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