The Kerala police filed a case on Thursday against former Indian fast bowler S Sreesanth and two others regarding a cheating complaint. Besides Sreesanth, Rajiv Kumar, aged 50, and Venkatesh Kini, aged 43, are also listed as the accused in the FIR.
The lawsuit was initiated after Sareesh Balagopalan, a resident of Choonda Kannapuram, filed a complaint claiming that he had been defrauded of a sum of Rs 18.7 lakh on multiple occasions starting from April 25, 2019.
Sreesanth and the two others have been booked under IPC Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property).
As per the complaint, it is alleged that the funds were misappropriated for the development of a sports academy in Kollur, Karnataka. Sreesanth has been identified as the third person involved in this case.
Sreesanth, along with his Rajasthan Royals teammates Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, was banned for a lifetime by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in August 2013. This was due to their alleged involvement in spot-fixing during the Indian Premier League (IPL) that year. However, in 2019, his lifetime ban was reduced to seven years, which he served and completed in September 2020.
After being banned, he returned to the cricket field by being selected in the 20-member squad for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2021, representing the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA).
In both 2021 and 2022, he was selected as a potential candidate for the IPL auction but was not chosen to be bought on either occasion.
Sreesanth made his first appearance in Test cricket in March 2006. Since then, he has participated in 27 matches, taking 87 wickets and scoring 281 runs. In One Day Internationals (ODIs), he has played 53 matches and taken 75 wickets.
He made his debut in T20I cricket in December and went on to participate in a total of 10 matches, where he managed to secure 7 wickets.
