Betting was a habit for Raj Kundra,claims partner

Kundra's name surfaced in the IPL betting-fixing probe during the questioning of Umesh Goenka.

IPL team Rajasthan Royals co-owner Raj Kundra was heavily involved in placing bets on matches and was in fact habituated to it,his business partner Umesh Goenka is believed to have told the police.

Kundras name surfaced in the IPL betting-fixing probe during the questioning of Goenka,leading to Kundra being grilled by the Delhi Police Special Cell earlier this week.

Police sources said Goenka claimed that Kundras actor-wife Shilpa Shetty knew full well that her husband regularly placed bets.

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Goenka has also alleged that Shetty had asked him to place bets on her behalf,a claim that was made by Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar as well on Thursday.

Goenka is believed to have told the police that it was Kundra who had introduced RR player Siddharth Trivedi to him. Trivedi,who was allegedly in touch with several bookies and received gifts from them,was asked to indulge in spot-fixing but he apparently did not oblige them. He is now a prosecution witness.

Goenkas statement to the police was recorded before a magistrate,making it evidence in court that can be used against Kundra,Shetty and Goenka himself for betting on IPL matches.

Goenka is also believed to have told the police that he was a co-accused with notorious stock broker Ketan Parekh in the stock market manipulation scandal of 1999-2000 and the case is pending trial in a Mumbai court.

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The claim is backed by a SEBI order of March 31,2007,banning Goenka and others from the capital market for five years for a preferential allotment and rigging scam involving Padmini Technologies.

Following the stock market scam,Goenka claimed he returned to Ahmedabad in 2002. He joined hands with Kundra and another partner named Karan Singh Gulati to start Ashwini Steel Private Ltd in 2008.

Goenka came into contact with bookies and punters at a club in Ahmedabad during the third edition of the IPL. He is said to have told the police that he began attending matches with Kundra and discussed betting with him in 2011.

Kundra,Goenka has alleged,asked him about the rates and ordered him to place bets on his behalf.

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Originally from Ahmedabad,Goenkas family moved to Delhi in 1984 and he studied at Ramjas College. The son of a railway official,he worked as a sales agent for a sponge iron company in the 1990s before joining his elder brother at the National Stock Exchange.