Single-judge Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar said that while it is true that if a player indulges in match fixing, a general feeling will arise that he has cheated the lovers of the game, that does not give rise to an offence under IPC.
“For invoking the offence under Section 420 of IPC, the essential ingredients to be present are deception, dishonest inducement of a person to deliver any property or to alter or destroy the whole or any part of a valuable security. It was argued that cricket buyers go to watch the match by buying tickets and thereby they are induced to part with their property. Of course money is property but they buy tickets voluntarily. So question of inducement to buy ticket can be ruled out,” the Court held.
Match fixing, the Court said may indicate dishonesty, indiscipline and mental corruption of a player.
However, only the BCCI can initiate disciplinary action under their by-laws for match fixing, and an FIR under Section 420 of the IPC cannot be registered, the Court made it clear.
The order was passed on a batch of petitions filed by certain players of Karnataka Premier League (KPL) seeking quashing of criminal cases filed against them for offences under Section 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and Section 120B (Punishment of criminal conspiracy) of IPC.
In November 2019, the City Crime Branch of Bengaluru had found out about alleged match fixing of the KPL cricket matches, which were held between August 15 and 31, 2019. A criminal case was initiated and chargesheet was filed against the petitioners.
It stated there was a conspiracy between the owner of the Belagavi Panthers team, some of the cricketers and bookies. The cricketers received money for conceding runs, playing slowly, and intentionally losing matches.
Source: Barandbench
