Mohammad Ahya alias Yusuf, 45, was arrested at the Hyderabad airport while trying to flee to Dubai, the sources said.
“One of the arrested bookies, Chandresh Patel, revealed Ahya’s name. We will be bringing him to Delhi,” a Delhi Police official said. This takes the number of arrests in the IPL spot fixing case to 19.
Ahya, based in Mumbai, was arrested by Delhi Police at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport on Hyderabad’s outskirts when he was about to board a flight to Dubai, police sources said.
“Ahya was working as a conduit between bookies and fixers for this season’s IPL matches,” a Delhi Police official said.
While questioning Patel, the name Yusuf surfaced. Further questioning revealed that Yusuf was actually Mohammad Ahya. A team of Delhi Police Special Cell laid a trap and nabbed him from the Hyderabad airport’s security hold area, the officer said.
Ahya, a resident of Mumbai and native of Hyderabad, started his career as a spot boy on film sets in 1984. He also worked as a spot boy in the films of veteran actor Dilip Kumar. He was a spot boy in a movie set which was released in 2010, the officer said.
Prior to his arrest, Ahya was working as a spot boy while spot fixing IPL matches, police said.
“He got in touch with Patel this year before the IPL started. He contacted several players of IPL for spot fixing on Patel’s instructions,” he added.
Police said Ahya travelled to Dubai frequently.
The involvement of Bollywood stars and an underworld don based in Dubai in the spot fixing has not been ruled out.
“Our team is working on all angles and investigations are on,” the officer added.
Delhi Police arrested Rajasthan Royals cricketers S. Sreesanth, Chandila, Ankeet Chavan and 11 bookies in a post-midnight operation in Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad May 16, exposing the spot fixing scam.
Actor Vindu Dara Singh was also arrested on allegations of spot fixing in IPL matches. – IANS