NEW DELHI: Five cases registered against underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his aide Chhota Shakeel between 2003 and 2010 figure in the review petition filed by the Delhi Police, challenging a trial court’s decision acquitting cricketers S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila, Ankeet Chavan and all others accused in the 2013 Indian Premier League spot-fixing case. The Delhi Police special cell included these five cases filed in New Delhi and Mumbai to establish the link between Dawood’s organised crime syndicate and activities such as betting and match-fixing during the IPL. The review petition filed in the Delhi High Court after seeking a nod from Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung said: “The detailed… investigation revealed that the spot-fixing activities were going on in an organised manner. The network of these activities spread over Delhi and other places was being orchestrated by Dawood’s syndicate.” It said the trial court judge “returned a factually as also legally erroneous findings of the impugned order to the effect that Chhota Shakeel has not been shown to be a part of the crime syndicate of which Dawood was the head”. The special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) judge, while discharging those accused, observed no nexus between Dawood and Shakeel had been established and thus an FIR against Shakeel “cannot be considered against every member of the alleged crime syndicate”. The judge said the case “did not satisfy the mandatory requirement provided under Section 2(1) (d) of MCOCA for the offences to qualify as ‘continuing unlawful activity’.” As per the 53-page review petition filed by additional public prosecutor Varun Goswami, “the court has held that since the FIR against Dawood and Shakeel registered in March-April 2003 in Mumbai is beyond the period of 10 years to the FIR registered by Delhi Police in IPL spot-fixing of May 2013, the continuing unlawful activity (MCOCA) cannot be established”. He claimed the judge “erroneously failed to appreciate and notice” that the sanction under MCOCA in the 2003 case was granted on May 30, 2003, and therefore the FIR registered by Delhi Police in 2013 falls within the period of 10 years. The petition accessed by ET alleged Rajasthan Royals player Chavan had met bookies Ashwani Agarwal and Kiran Dhole in Delhi near the Hotel Ashok in Chanakyapuri. “The scrutiny of call details of mobile number of Ankeet and bookies show he had met them for match-fixing,” the petition alleged. The Delhi Police said the trial court had conducted a virtual “mini-trial” at the stage of consideration of framing of charges, which is prohibited in law.