IPL betting: Bollywood star Arbaaz Khan summoned by Thane police

Actor Arbaaz Khan is an ever-present figure during IPL matches

Bengaluru, June 1: Arbaaz Khan, the Bollywood actor, director and producer and brother of Salman Khan, has been summoned by Thane police in connection with a probe into betting during the IPL 2018.

The name of Arbaaz Khan cropped up during the interrogation of bookie Sonu Jalan and the Thane police, as per reports, have asked the Bollywood star to record his statement with their anti-extortion cell.

On May 16, the anti-extortion cell of the Thane Crime Branch raided a building in Dombivli where the epicenter of an IPL betting ring was working. The cops arrested three people and two more arrests were made in the subsequent days.

Jalan (41) was nabbed from the Kalyan sessions court premises, where he had come to "comfort" his partners who were produced on the court. Jalan is said to be a key person in the betting business, with his activities spread across continents. Police have placed his annual turnover close to Rs 100 crore.

Police hopes that the arrest of Jalan and his partners could prove decisive in getting deep into the cricket betting syndicate in the country.

"Investigations are on about Jalan's association and regular communication with the Dawood betting circuit in Dubai with Anil Tunda and Raees Faruki, as they are known to be operation heads of gambling in Dubai operated by the gangster," senior inspector Pradeep Sharma was quoted as saying by the Times of India.

Meanwhile. the International Cricket Council has been investigating a pitch-fixing allegation revealed by the Al Jazeera channel through its documentary.

The matches in question were Australia's third Test against India at Ranchi in 2017 and the final Test between India and England at Chennai, and the documentary alleged that three England and two Australian players agreed to score at a rate specified by the fixers.

Richardson had said he had watched the Al Jazeera documentary and got angered to see that "criminals" are "swanning around" cricket.

"We are obviously very much aware there are these types of individuals and types of criminal groups around world who are trying to get into cricket, trying to get hold of players, trying to get hold of groundsmen But it was reminder that these guys are at work and they are not going away and we've got our work cut out trying to disrupt them," he had said.