Sunil Narine cleared by IPL's suspect bowling action committee
Abu Dhabi: Kolkata Knight Riders' West Indian spinner Sunil Narine was on Sunday cleared by the Indian Premier League's suspect bowling action committee after being reported last week.
Narine was reported for a suspect action during his team's clash against Kings XI Punjab last Saturday and another such instance could have led him to being barred from bowling in the league.
But, in a relief for the player as well as for his franchise, the IPL committee found his bowling action to be clean.
"Sunil Narine, the Kolkata Knight Riders player, has been cleared by the IPL's suspect bowling action committee," the IPL said in a statement.
After being reported, Narine was placed on the IPL warning list.
KKR requested for an official assessment of Narine's action from the specific committee, submitting action footage in slow motion with back and side angles.
"The committee carefully reviewed all the deliveries of action footage sent of Mr Narine with the naked eye and has come to the conclusion that the elbow-bend appears to be within the range of permissible limits.
"The committee also noted that Mr Narine should reproduce the same action going forward in the IPL 2020 matches as presented to the Committee in the video footage," the IPL added in its statement.
The 32-year-old cricketer has now been removed from the IPL suspect action warning list.
In 2015, Narine served suspension from bowling in international cricket after his action was declared illegal by the ICC. But he was cleared to bowl in all formats in 2016 after undergoing corrective measures.
His action was also reported during the 2018 Pakistan Super League but was cleared eventually. Narine sharpened his batting skills after being reported multiple times.
Narine picked up two wickets in his four overs during the match last Saturday, which KKR won by two runs while defending 165.
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Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
