The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police on Wednesday submitted the report of its investigation on Nepal T20 spot-fixing to the Kathmandu District Attorney’s Office making 12 suspects as defendants.

“Of them, six are Nepalis and the other six are foreign nationals,” Superintendent of Nepal Police Sanjay Singh Thapa, who is also spokesperson at the CIB, told the Post.

“They will be charged under the National Sports Development Act 2077 BS. If the court finds them guilty, they will get a jail term of three years and a fine of up to 50,000 rupees.”

According to him, the Attorney’s Office is preparing to file a charge sheet against them at the Kathmandu District Court in a couple of days.

CIB has already arrested veteran cricketer Mehboob Alam, cricketers Mohammad Aadil Alam (Aadil Ansari) and Nitesh Gupta on fixing charges. Alam and Aadil Alam were arrested from Biratnagar and Rajbiraj respectively on January 23. Aadil was in the national team and Gupta is a local cricketer in Birgunj who played for a local team of late. Gupta was nabbed on February 8.

Mehboob had approached at least two players including Aadil Alam with a fixing proposal, police said, while Aadil Alam, who played for Janakpur Royals in NepalT20, was found to have been involved in spot fixing in at least two matches.

Gupta had approached national cricketer and Pokhara Avengers batter Aarif Sheikh to get out hit-wicket during Nepal T20 League, according to police. Aarif, however, had reported the fixing approach to the Anti-Corruption Unit of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

The players were offered Rs600,000 to Rs1 million for spot-fixing per game. The fixers had used WhatsApp, phone, text messages and also held coffee shop meetings to approach the players, according to police.

The country’s cricket governing body had controversially sold the rights of the Nepal T20, the country’s first ever official franchise league, to Seven3Sports, a little-known Indian sports management company, for eight years. The company, which had been rumoured to have connection with a betting company, was one of the key suspects in the fixing scandals.

Other nine, including Seven3Sports managing director Jatin Ahluwalia, are still at large. Ahluwalia had fled Nepal in the middle of the tournament after rumours of spot-fixing made rounds.

According to CIB sources, Ahluwalia allegedly masterminded the fixing scandal and the arrested cricketers had operated as per his instructions.

According to Thapa, the police have made Ahluwalia the main defendant of the fixing case.

CAN President Chatur Bahadur Chand has denied the cricket body’s role in the fixing.