M A I N   N E W S

Mere chance led police to Cronje
From Syed Ali Ahmed

NEW DELHI, April 12 — The cricket betting racket was unearthed by the Delhi Police by a mere chance while they were tracking down the telephone conversation of an extortion racket.

“When we heard the terms like ‘pitches’ and ‘matches’, we sniffed something wrong. We never expected that it would turn out to be such a big catch,” a member of the Delhi Police team which is investigating the case told The Tribune.

“I love cricket and Hansie Cronje, the sacked South African Cricket captain, was one of my favourites. I really feel sorry for him,” he said, adding “but I never expected him to do such a thing.”

The Extortion Cell of the Crime branch had been tracking the telephone conversation of gangs involved in the extortion racket and were mainly concentrating on the Dubai, London and South East Asian network of these gangs.

“We have been monitoring the conversation of Sanjay, alias Sanjeev Chawla, the London-based NRI bookie, as his cellphone number was being used for extortion,” he said.

The police intensified the tapping of Sanjay’s phone after a Delhi-based businessman sought help alleging that he was receiving extortion calls.

During the investigations of the case, the alleged links of Sanjay with the underworld came to light, he said.

One of the phones of the prime accused, which was already under observation, was given to Cronje by Sanjay Chawla and the conversation held between Sanjay and Cronje was recorded.

The police had 12 tapes of conversation held between Sanjay Chawla and Cronje in which voices of both the suspects were clear as they used sophisticated monitoring equipments, he said.

He said Chawla was the main person behind the matchfixing conspiracy and other illegal activities. While the police was gathering more evidence, Chawla sensed it and fled India. The nature of the conversation shows that Chawla and Cronje knew each other quite well.

The police said it had sufficient evidence to prove the involvement of Cronje and Chawla in the match-fixing deals.

The Delhi Police had earlier come across a Delhi-based betting ring but had to be content with the small fry.

At least three other cases of cricket betting were recorded during June and July, 1999. A female bookie Mona had been arrested from Vasant Vihar in June, 1999. She had been operating from her house and used to organise betting on World Cup cricket matches.