Actor-turned-producer Arbaaz Khan on Saturday visited the Thane police station after being summoned to join the investigation in connection with an alleged betting racket during the 11th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
According to the Thane police, Arbaaz Khan’s name reportedly came up during the investigations following the arrest of alleged bookie Sonu Jalan alias Sonu Malad.
Arbaaz, brother of superstar Salman Khan, was asked to appear before the Thane Anti Extortion Cell.
The summons were issued to Arbaaz after Sonu Jalan — who reportedly has links with various mafia dons, including absconding Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar — was arrested some time ago and interrogated by the AEC sleuths in connection with the IPL betting scam, police said.
“The case investigations are going on for the past five-six years and could involve amounts of over Rs 500-600 crore. We want to find out from Arbaaz what was his role in the entire matter,” said Police Inspector Rajkumar Kothmire, who is probing the matter.
The 50-year-old actor-producer’s name cropped up during Jalan’s interrogation and recovery of some photographs which include other major film personalities who may be subsequently summoned, he indicated.
“We suspect that Khan had placed bets on IPL matches and want to scrutinise his bank transactions,” another police official told PTI.
The betting racket was busted on May 16 and five bookies who were operating out of Dombivli were arrested, said police. It has also been learned that bookies were using a software called ‘Bet and Take’ to place bets online. The software was used by the bookies to place bets nationally and internationally and it was provided by Jalan.
The 42-year-old Jalan was arrested on Tuesday. Two days after his arrest, the Thane anti-extortion cell found a diary with phone numbers of more than 100 bookies.
In the diary, names of Bollywood celebrities, contractors and builders had figured, reports say.
“We have booked him (Jalan) on betting charges. But we are, in a way, trying to trace his underworld connections to Dawood Ibrahim. It has come to our notice that Jalan assisted Dawood in fixing matches,” Pradeep Sharma, senior inspector of the anti-extortion cell, had said.
According to senior inspector of the anti-extortion Pradeep Sharma, Jalan had just returned from Dubai after meeting a Dawood aide. “He even has links in Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries. We are interrogating him about these links and about his money.”
According to Kothmire, the entire IPL scam involves some of the biggest bookies operating from Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and New Delhi.
Jalan was first nabbed around 10 years ago when the IPL betting scam had erupted and later investigations proved he was in touch with several world personalities, including Arbaaz.
-With agencies inputs.