According to a report, a bookie had approached Siraj, of Hyderabad, India, and formerly Royal Challengers Bangalore, during the ODI series between India and Australia in March. Siraj immediately reported to the BCCI Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU).

The BCCI ACU then raised the matter with the physical police as well as the cybercrime division, who subsequently arrested the man “somewhere in Andhra [Pradesh]”.

A source inside the BCCI ACU told the New Indian Express that the bookie sent WhatsApp messages to Siraj, “informing him about the losses he incurred on betting,” and expected Siraj to “help him out”.

Unlike most cases of match- or spot-fixing, the bookie, in this case, was an individual, who “is not associated with any gang nor does he have past record of betting” who had “lost a lot of money while betting on matches and was hoping Siraj would help him to get out of the situation.”

There have been instances of fixing in the IPL a decade ago. Accused of spot-fixing, Mohnish Mishra, Shalabh Srivastava, TP Sudhindra, Amit Yadav, and Abhinav Bali were immediately suspended in 2012.

A much larger scandal followed in 2013, which led to the arrest of S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila, and Ankeet Chavan. That December, the Supreme Court of India appointed a committee to investigate into the matter.

The BCCI ACU has been consistently strict since then. During IPL 2015, they found Virat Kohli guilty of flouting the norms after he met would-be wife during the rain break of a match, though they subsequently cleared of the charge.

India had won the first ODI of the series before Australia bounced back to claim the series 2-1. With five wickets in three matches at 20.60, Siraj finished as the second-highest wicket-taker in the series, after Mitchell Starc.