My confession to the police was under duress, says S Sreesanth
Sreesanth said he was distressed by the fact that the evidence against him in the IPL spot-fixing scandal is not concrete.
Banned fast bowler S Sreesanth claimed innocence in a letter to the BCCI's disciplinary Committee and said his confession to the police in the spot-fixing saga was under duress.
"Under the threat of arrest of my close relatives a statement was forcibly taken in the manner directed by the police," said Sreesanth, who was banned for life after being found guilty of spot-fixing in the IPL in an internal inquiry conducted by the Board's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit chief Ravi Sawani.
"There is no confession recorded by me willingly to the police. The police have mentally and physically harassed me and obtained signed statements. The conclusion arrived at by the Commissioner of Enquiry that I have committed offences ... is based on conjectures, guesses, inferences, and inadmissible police reports" Sreesanth said in the letter which was submitted to the Disciplinary Committee just before the hearing.
"The police have not intercepted any conversation between me and any others in support of the wild and fantastic charges levelled against me which has put me into manifest injustice and prejudice as I had no opportunity to refute them," said the 30-year-old pacer.
"As regards seeking, accepting, offering or agreeing to accept any bribe there is no trace of evidence pointing out to any such incident at all," the Kerela pacer said.
"As regards the charges I respectfully beg to submit that all of them as has been conceded in the report itself are based on media reports and not any concrete and reliable evidence", he said.