Chandila granted bail by Delhi court

Ajit Chandila has been granted bail by a Delhi court in the IPL spot-fixing case. According to PTI, the court took the decision after ruling that the prosecution had "missing links" in their case.

Chandila and his Rajasthan Royals team-mates Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan had been arrested, along with 11 bookies, on May 16 and charged under the Indian Penal Code section 420 and 120B, which deal with fraud, cheating and conspiracy. Sreesanth and Chavan had successfully made bail and were released on June 11.

The court also directed the Delhi Police Commissioner to examine the issue of the missing links within a month. "It is very surprising," the judge said. "There are some missing links in the case. I am sending the full file to the Commissioner of Police to let the case be examined." The court also fixed October 7 as the date for hearing the prosecution's plea seeking cancellation of bail granted to the three cricketers and the others arrested.

Chandila was named as one of the accused in a 6000-page charge sheet issued by the Delhi police, along with Sreesanth and Chavan. In June, the police had invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), a special law passed by the Maharashtra state government to tackle organised crime syndicates and terrorism, against all three cricketers. But after the police failed to provide adequate evidence to support the addition of the MCOCA charge, a court in Delhi had upheld Sreesanth and Chavan's plea for bail. The two of them were released from custody on June 11, while Chandila had not applied for bail then.

Chandila had later submitted that he had been falsely implicated and said the police had "mischievously added" provisions of the MCOCA to the charges to keep him from getting bail. His counsel Rakesh Kumar had said Chandila had no connections to Dawood Ibrahim or his aide, Chhota Shakeel, who are among India's most wanted criminals. Both of them are also charged in the case and the police allege that they control the betting syndicate in India.