NEW DELHI, May 24: Pressure mounted on Friday for the resignation of BCCI president N Srinivasan in the wake of alleged involvement of his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan in betting on IPL matches even as questions were raised over the future of Chennai franchise.

The 35-year-old Gurunath, who had been summoned by Mumbai Police for questioning after being implicated in betting, flew to Mumbai from Madurai in a chartered aircraft a little after the 5 pm deadline set by police for questioning accompanied by a noted Chennai lawyer PS Raman.

In attempts to cut losses, India Cements, which owns Chennai Super Kings and is run by Srinivasan, sought to distance itself from Gurunath, saying he is neither the owner nor CEO or the team principal of CSK.

“Gurunath is only one of the members (Honorary) of the management team of CSK. India Cements follows zero tolerance policy and if anyone is proved guilty, strict action will be taken immediately and assures full cooperation with BCCI and law enforcement authorities,” a statement by the company said.

However, woes for Srinivasan appeared to be mounting with demands for his resignation getting louder.

The NCP headed by Sharad Pawar, a former BCCI president, demanded that Srinivasan quit immediately “if he has any sense of morality and public accountability.”

Party spokesman DP Tripathi told a press conference that Srinivasan was under a shadow of doubt after Gurunath was summoned by Mumbai Police.

Sahara group chief Subrata Roy, whose team Pune Warriors exited the IPL couple of days ago, also demanded Srinivasan’s resignation.

Roy lashed out at the BCCI chief and stated that his group will not sponsor the Indian cricket team as long as the beleaguered board president stays at the helm.

“It’s really sad. The last 13-14 years we had enjoyed such a harmonious relationship [with BCCI] till Shashank Manohar was there. But after that it is so disgusting,” said Roy.

Questioning Srinivasan’s conflict of interest in the game, Roy said Chennai Super Kings’ contract should be terminated immediately in the wake of franchise owner Gurunath’s name cropping up in the spot-fixing scandal.

“If a franchise is involved in betting their contract should immediately be scrapped. If a owner is involved in betting it’s wrong. Everything revolves around Srinivasan. He doesn’t know how to run a sports body like BCCI,” Roy told Times of India.

Analysts say that if Gurunath is arrested by Mumbai Police and charges are levelled against him, it may threaten CSK’s continuance in IPL.

As the spot-fixing saga continued, a middle-aged man, who is associated with Bollywood and had alleged links with the underworld, was arrested at Hyderabad airport in connection with the IPL spot-fixing scandal minutes before he was to board an aircraft to flee to Dubai.

Investigators claimed that Mohd Yahya was in touch with players of more than one team, including Rajasthan Royals, to spot-fix matches for bookies.

They also believe that his arrest early this morning may lead the investigators to the “doors of another IPL team” which is alleged to be involved in the betting racket.

Delhi Police commissioner Neeraj Kumar on Thursday said that at least three more players and one more IPL team is under the scanner for spot-fixing in the tournament. “He [Yahya] was trying to flee to Dubai when we caught him,” Kumar said.

Rattled by the scandal, IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla and BCCI vice-president Arun Jaitley on Friday met law minister Kapil Sibal, demanding that a strong anti-fixing legislation be “enacted as soon as possible”.

“Today Arun Jaitley, who is a BCCI vice-president and the chairman of the disciplinary committee and me met law minister Mr Kapil Sibal and requested that the strongest possible law should be made to crack down on match-fixing,” Shukla said.—Agencies