NEW DELHI-Pakistani links, role of D-Company and the involvement of the Mumbai underworld have surfaced in the investigations into spot-fixing in Indian Premier League (IPL) matches in which Indian fast bowler S Sreesanth and two of his Rajasthan Royals teammates have been arrested, police said on Thursday, adding more arrests are expected.

Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila and 11 other bookies arrested for alleged spot fixing were sent to five-day police custody by a chief metropolitan magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma.

“We had information that Mumbai underworld is indulging in match-fixing or spot-fixing and have contacted a number of bookies and some players,” Delhi Police commissioner Neeraj Kumar said, giving details of the arrests of three players and 11 bookies in Mumbai late Wednesday night.

“There are overseas connections and there is evidence to prove that the underworld is involved. But, there is no concrete evidence of any (gang) members of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim (being involved) so far. But, it can’t be ruled out,” he said at a crowded press conference.

Asked who the individual is, he said: “We know the name but that could be the assumed name. That’s why we are not sharing with the press. The number he was using was of Dubai but you can use Dubai’s number sitting somewhere else.”

But, according to Mumbai police sources, the arrests were made on the basis of tracking phone calls, at least two dozen of which originated from Pakistan.

A couple of bookies of the total seven arrested from Mumbai are allegedly linked to Dawood, who is said to be in Pakistan, sources said.

Dawood is believed to be a veteran in cricket betting and match fixing.

The Delhi Police commissioner said the suspects were kept under watch since April and it was found that match fixers and bookies from Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab and that some players participating in the IPL were conspiring in spot-fixing.

He said these bookies used to spot the “vulnerable” players who could be easily contacted. But only three players came into their net.

While Sreesanth and his Rajasthan Royals colleagues Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila, as also the 11 bookies have been charged with cheating and criminal conspiracy, Neeraj Kumar said there is a “distinct possibility” the cricketers will also be booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA), which deals with combating organized crime and terrorism.

Detailing the modus operandi, he said, “Bookies also told them that they would have to give indications before start of an over about giving away runs. The indications included rotate your watch, put a towel in your trousers, take some time on looking around the field, take out a locket or chain from your shirt and lift vest/shirt.”

The first incident of spot-fixing, he said, was discovered in the May 5 match between Pune Warriors and Rajasthan Royals. This was followed by the May 9 match between Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals and the May 15 match between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals.

Armed with the video clippings of the given-away runs, the police chief also read out transcripts of the conversations between the players and the bookies.

Noting they have 100 hours of audio clippings as evidence, he said that there was evidence that spot-fixing was happening in other teams as well.

The 14 arrested were sent to police custody till May 21.

Police had sought seven days police remand, contending they have collected total 55 mobile phones and laptops, and the data from laptops, all which is in code words, needs to be recovered.

They also sought custody for unearthing the entire conspiracy and to know the who are the other people or players involved in the fixing.

The fourteen accused, including Sreesanth, who came with his face covered, were produced at judge’s home around 6.30pm at Saket court complex.

They all were charged under Section 420 (cheating) and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) of IPC.—IANS

Another sex scandal has hit the Indian Navy with the wife of an officer alleging her husband tortured her mentally and physically and forced her to sleep with his colleagues.

The Navy has been hit by yet another alleged sex scandal as the wife of a senior officer has charged her husband with forcing her to get “sexually involved” with his colleagues, prompting Defence Minister A K Antony to order a probe.

The case has come up on a day when the Defence Minister asked the top brass of the Navy in its Commanders’ conference to take sternest possible action against officers involved in such deeds.

“The Defence Minister was very helpful and has told us that he has ordered a departmental inquiry into the charges made by me and my parents against my husband,” the woman complainant said here after meeting Antony.

She alleged that her husband, who is a Lieutenant Commander (equivalent to a Major in Army) posted at the Naval Ship Repair Yard (NSRY) in Karwar, “forced me to get sexually involved with his colleagues and consume alcohol.”

The woman, who says she has shifted to her maternal home after this episode, has accused her husband of physical and mental torture.

An MBA, she got married in February last year to the officer. The woman alleged that her husband had threatened that if she disclosed about his deeds to anyone, “he would put up my nude pictures on internet to spoil my image socially”.

She said her husband is working on an important assignment related to Navy’s Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier under construction at a shipyard in Russia and is about to be posted there s oon.

Two girls escaped a rape bid by jumping out of a speeding autorickshaw in Andhra Pradesh, injuring themselves.

Two girls jumped out from a speeding autorickshaw to escape a rape attempt and one of them was severely injured at Paderu in Vizag agency area in the wee hours of Monday, police said.

The girls, both residents of G Madugula area in the district had gone to Paderu on Sunday evening to witness the local Sri Modakondamma festival which began on Sunday, they said.

The girls boarded a shared autorickshaw at Paderu in the wee hours of Monday to go back to their hometown.

After the vehicle went some distance, two boys, who were also travelling in the vehicle started misbehaving with the girls and allegedly sought sexual favours from them, they said, adding that the driver of the autorickshaw then took a U-turn, speeding in another direction, towards Chintalaveedhi.

Observing the vehicle speeding in the wrong direction and sensing something amiss, the girls jumped out of the vehicle and started screaming for help, they said.

England`s Home Office announced the launch of a same-day, “super priority” visa service for Indian travellers, an official announcement said.

The first of its kind service launched anywhere in the world, it will be available to Indians from Wednesday.

The service is the fulfilment of a commitment by British Prime Minister David Cameron during his recent visit to India, a spokesperson for the British Deputy High Commision said.

The Super Priority Visa Service (SPVS), which complements the existing Fast Track Service and the recent Online Payment Option, will be available to Indians, excluding students, intending to apply for a six-month or two-year multiple entry visit visa and having previously travelled to Britain, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada or a Schengen country within the last five years.

It is also available to visa applicants sponsored by companies who are members of the UK Business Express Programme. The service will initially be made available from Mumbai and New Delhi, and in the near future from Chennai.

“This underlines our strong commitment to make an already excellent visa service even better. We expect this new service to be particularly useful for business. Opportunities arise at short notice. We want Indian entrepreneurs and businessmen to be able to seize these. The UK and India are already on course to double bilateral trade by 2015. The new Super Priority Visa will help make sure that we hit this target”, said British High Commissioner to India, Sir James Bevan.

The SPVS, an optional service, comes with an additional fee of Rs 51,000 besides the standard fee for the type of visa being applied for.

Applicants must complete an online form and submit their applications, by appointment, before 9.30 am. If an application is successful, the visa will be ready for collection by 5.30 pm, the same day in New Delhi or by 6.30 pm, the same day in Mumbai.

Of the 6,000 aspirants who applied, 40 made the cut for a training programme as trainee metro pilots: Priyanka Balid and Srikala Nair are among them

It took the Railways nearly 125 years to rope in their first woman driver, but Mumbai Metro’s very first batch of 40 pilots includes two women, who are now in the midst of a gruelling 80-day training programme in the city, having finished a stint abroad. The training, imparted on a machine that costs a hefty Rs 40 crore, teaches the trainee pilots not only how to drive the new trains, but also to tackle crises like terror strikes or medical emergency.

Once they complete training, the two women — Priyanka Balid and Srikala Nair — and their 38 male counterparts, will be maneuvering trains on the 11.07-km-long Versova Andheri Ghatkopar (VAG) corridor, the city’s first Metro line.

Priyanka, who is a mechanical engineer, and her co-trainee Srikala were selected from 6,000 applicants who responded to the advertisement.

Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL) officials revealed that the training programmes were trained in a manner that would equip the pilots to handle crisis effectively. Twenty-four-year-old Priyanka, who is enjoying her stint thoroughly, said, “Training to be a pilot is definitely interesting and involves a lot of hard work.

The monthly salary to be paid to the pilots once they begin manning the controls is between Rs 50,000-70,000.

Roberto Mancini was sacked as manager of Manchester City on Monday– a year to the day after leading the club to the English Premier League title.

City’s shock FA Cup Final defeat by Wigan at Wembley on Saturday meant they ended this season without any silverware and strengthened rumours Mancini, who replaced Mark Hughes in 2009, was about to be dismissed.

The club’s Abu Dhabi-based owners confirmed Monday the end of the Italian manager’s three-and-a-half years at Eastlands, with a City statement saying: “It is with regret that Manchester City Football Club announces that Roberto Mancini has been relieved of his duties as Manchester City manager.

“This has been a difficult decision for the owner, chairman and board to make and it is the outcome of a planned end-of-season review process that has been brought forward in light of recent speculation and out of respect for Roberto and his extensive contributions to the football club.

“Despite everyone’s best efforts, the club has failed to achieve any of its stated targets this year, with the exception of qualification for next season’s UEFA Champions League.”

“This, combined with an identified need to develop a holistic approach to all aspects of football at the club, has meant that the decision has been taken to find a new manager for the 2013-14 season and beyond.”

City’s Champions League qualification has been overshadowed by the uninspiring nature of their title defence, with the club a distant second to already crowned English champions Manchester United and 13 points adrift of their local rivals.

The 48-year-old Mancini’s time at City saw the club win a first major trophy in 35 years with the 2011 FA Cup, while last season’s Premier League title was their first top-flight crown since 1968 and saw the manager rewarded with a new five-year deal.

A video uploaded on the internet shows a Syrian rebel fighter ‘eating the heart’ of a soldier.

A gruesome video has emerged on the Internet apparently showing a Syrian rebel fighter cutting out the heart of a regime soldier and eating it.

“We swear to God we will eat your hearts and livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog,” the insurgent says as he bends over a blurred body and cuts out the heart in the amateur footage uploaded on the internet.

“We are the heroes of Baba Amr,” he says, referring to a rebel stronghold of the central city of Homs that has been flattened by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

The man, identified in the video as a member of the mainstream rebel Free Syrian Army, then stands up, raises his dagger in one hand and the heart in the other.

He then proceeds to place the organ in his mouth, before the video abruptly ends.

Trying to recover the Rs 10L he lost in cricket betting, the accused plotted to kidnap his diamond broker uncle’s son for ransom. Police on Tuesday arrested a 28-year-old man on charges of kidnapping and killing his 13-year-old cousin.

The police said the prime accused Himanshu Ranka and his friend Brijesh Sanghvi, 25, had lost close to Rs 10 lakh each in cricket betting. In order to pay off their debts, they decided to kidnap Ranka’s cousin Aditya and demand a ransom of Rs 30 lakh from his diamond broker father Jitendra.

According to the police, around noon on Monday, Brijesh called the Ranka household pretending to be a customer and asked Jintendra’s wife to send Aditya to the street corner to take a bunch of keys from him. An unsuspecting Aditya got into the waiting car, in which Brijesh and another person were sitting. Brijesh told Aditya they will have to drive some distance to get the keys.

Police, who pieced to together the sequence of events based on Himanshu’s interrogation, said Brijesh made the ransom from an unknown number when he was somewhere near Sion. “Jitendra thought it was a prank call and disconnected it,” said an officer. “He did not take the Rs 30 lakh demand seriously as he doesn’t earn much. He is not a trader, but only a broker. Nonetheless, he called his wife who told him Aditya had gone with someone he sent. That is when Jintendra realised his son had been kidnapped and he came to us.”

All the while Himanshu was with Jitendra, pretending to console his uncle. But when he saw that the police was intensifying efforts to trace the phone, he realised that if Aditya was rescued, he will definitely identify Brijesh. “So he called Brijesh, who had by then driven Aditya to Pali in Raigad district, and told him to kill the boy,” said the officer.