Colombo, May 22 (IANS): Just a day after a player auction was held for the Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2024, the owner of one of the five franchise teams, Dambulla Thunders, was arrested and remanded to police custody over allegations of match-fixing.

Tamim Rahman, a Bangladeshi national holding a British passport who is the owner of Dambulla Thunders, was arrested by officials of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) for the Prevention of Offences Relating to Sports at the Sports Ministry. Rahman was arrested at the Katunayake airport as he was waiting to leave the country on Wednesday.

The suspect, a businessman, was produced before a court over the suspicion of fixing matches in the tournament, which is scheduled to get underway on July 1. He was remanded till May 31.

“We got a travel ban on the suspect on Tuesday night as we have got complaints over alleged plans to fix matches of the upcoming franchise tournament in Sri Lanka,” a senior officer from Sri Lanka’s Attorney General’s (AG) Department told IANS.

According to the senior officer representing the Attorney General, the SIU was following the preparations for the franchise tournament and also certain suspected individuals.

The arrest was made just a day after the player auction for the 5th edition of LPL was held at a star-class hotel in Colombo, where members of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Anti-Corruption team were also present.

Imperial Sports Group, led by Bangladeshi entrepreneurs bought the Dambulla franchise last April.