Probe charges over Star Cricket, says HC

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday directed the police to see if any ‘cognizable offence’ has been committed by some office-bearers of the South India Artists Association by misappropriation of funds in the guise of Star Cricket.

The court asked Inspector of Police, Central Crime Branch, Team 2 of Vepery to register cases against actors Nassar, Vishal and Karthi in this regard. The petitioner, Varaaki, is one of the members of the association and alleged that misappropriation took place in the guise of Star Cricket and in awarding tender for telecasting the event.

Varaaki stated that expenses for the same issues were duplicated and that the contract of telecast was given to SUN TV without consulting the general body. He further said that decisions were taken without paying any heed to the procedures explicitly mentioned in the bylaws of the association.

The petitioner said that by conducting Star Cricket, the office-bearers collected several crore as sponsorship fee and fabricated accounts. Varaaki filed a complaint and sought a case to be registered.

Justice M S Ramesh passed orders on the criminal original petition filed in October, 2016 asking the police to look into the matter and register a case, if anything was found amiss.