The Kathmandu District Court on Monday acquitted five individuals, including three cricketers, of spot-fixing charges.

A single bench of Judge Kamal Prasad Pokharel acquitted cricketers Mehboob Alam, Mohammad Aadil Ansari and Nitesh Gupta citing insufficient evidence to support the charges against them.

Likewise, the other two accused—Nabin Kandel and Rabi Majhi—were also given a clean chit, said Chandra Prasad Panthi, information officer at the court.

The cricketers were arrested on January 23, 2023, and were later released on bail while Kandel and Majhi were on the run.

The District Attorney Office had demanded three-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs50,000 for each of them on the charge of spot-fixing during the Nepal T20 League held from December 24, 2022 to January 11, 2023.

National cricketer Ansari played for Janakpur Royals in the League and featured in eight of the 12 matches his side played in the tournament. Former cricketer Alam is one among very few players to have set a rare record of bowling out all 10 opponent batters in a single match when he achieved the feat against Mozambique during the 2008 ICC World Cricket League Division Five. Nitesh Gupta played domestic games in Birgunj.

The investigation by the CIB was initiated following allegations of match-fixing and spot-fixing during the Nepal T20 League, which was organised by the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) in partnership with the Indian company Seven3Sports.

Alam had given a statement to CIB that he had proposed Ansari and Aarif Sheikh for spot-fixing.

In the statement recorded by CIB, Alam had said that he proposed to the cricketers for fixing after his neighbour Majhi asked him to. Majhi had offered Rs600,000 each if the players obeyed their instructions and got out for less than five runs in batting or conceded more than 10 runs per over to the opponents.

Sheikh did not give a prompt response to the offer, Alam had said. “I was supposed to take from Rs200,000 up to Rs600,000 had they accepted the offer,” Mehboob had said in the statement. “The amount was not dispatched as they did not accept the offer and I did not approach any other player for spot-fixing.”

Ansari in the statement had ruled out his involvement in spot-fixing. “An Indian national named Samir Sheikh had approached me for fixing via WhatsApp but I rejected it,” he had said in the statement. “He had asked me to throw a no ball and a wide and offered me Rs100,000. But I asked him not to talk about such things.”

He had also claimed that he had promptly informed about the fixing approach to CAN’s cricket manager Binod Das.

He had claimed that he bowled a wide and a no ball accidentally during the match against Kathmandu Knights on December 27 in the League but he ruled out that he bowled as per instruction of the Indian national.