More than murky, the arrest of S Sreesanth and two other cricketers from Rajasthan Royals team is getting to be more thrilling than most IPL matches this season.

While union minister of state for HRD Shashi Tharoor is reportedly batting for the Kerala cricketer, at least as of now, his family is smelling deep conspiracy, alleging that Indian cricket team captain MS Dhoni and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh are framing him.

“Sreesanth is a good player and Keralites are proud of him,” Tharoor said on Thursday, according to a report on the Malayala Manorama website.

That’s all right, but Tharoor's "Keralite" pride does not prove Sreesanth's innocence.

So the junior minister explains in more detail. “You know there is a maxim that one is innocent until proven guilty. So let us not judge his guilt until the proof has been provided, the courts have gone through the process, his defence is heard. I’m not prepared to condemn him until there is a conclusive determination of guilt. All I can say (is) that it is a very sad day for those of us who like Sreesanth and his contribution to cricket,” the minister, forced to quit from the union cabinet three years ago after his name was dragged in the IPL mess involving the Kochi team where Sreesanth was a star player, was quoted as saying.

That is the new defence for the Congress: with so many proverbial skeletons tumbling out the closet, if the party had a jail to house all the accused, it would be full house by now. So, the next best argument is: innocent until proven guilty — be it Pawan Kumar Bansal or Ashwani Kumar over the last few days, or Sreesanth now.

What Tharoor, and the other Congress leaders defending their tainted leaders, forget is that innocent does not mean a not guilty verdict. It does not mean they are above suspicion, for the accused still remains an accused; just as a suspect remains a suspect — till proven otherwise.

So if the “maxim that one is innocent until proven guilty” holds true, as Tharoor reminded the country this morning, it should also hold good that the same person is not blameless — or “not guilty” — unless proven innocent. In Sreesanth’s case, the Delhi Police special cell claims to have zeroed in on Sreesanth, along with Rajasthan Royal teammates Ankit Chavan and Ajit Chandilia, in Mumbai soon after their match with Mumbai Indians at Wankhede Stadium after keeping the players’ phone on surveillance.

According to reports by PTI and television channels, the special cell had been tracking — or tapping — phones of several cricketers for a while now, and found evidence of match fixing — be it fixing the whole game or bits and pieces of it, or what is dubbed spot fixing.

That, Tharoor is certainly aware, is circumstantial evidence, which automatically makes him a suspect, if not guilty, and thus certainly not above board. And that is precisely why BCCI has suspended the three cricketers pending inquiry.

In Ashwani Kumar’s case, the law enforcement agencies have more than just circumstantial evidence, while a case could be made out against Bansal, too. Either way, none of the three are above suspicion. They may not be guilty unless proven, but they definitely are not innocent until proven so.