M A I N   N E W S

Kishan Kumar faces arrest

NEW DELHI, April 13 (PTI) — The police is investigating the possible role of Dubai-based underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in the multi-million dollar match-fixing scandal even as it raided the residential premises of two bookies, whose names were reportedly revealed by Rajesh Kalra, the only arrest made so far in this case.

The police was trying to find the whereabouts of a woman, who had allegedly acted as a conduit between bookies and South African cricketers, official sources said, adding the woman had links with underworld gangs of Ibrahim and Chota Shakeel.

The woman was believed to have been running bookie rackets for these two gangs in the country, the sources said.

They said the two gangs had been involved in a match-fixing scandal at Sharjah and had apparently spread their wings to India.

Meanwhile, police conducted raids on the residential premises of two bookies in South Delhi, whose names were revealed by Kalra during interrogation, they said, adding, however, both of them had gone underground and efforts were on to nab them.

The police teams, camping in Mumbai and Bangalore, have checked the call list of local mobile service providers to ascertain the numbers accessed by South African cricketers and the bookies.

The police has also managed to find out names of more bookies and were verifying whether these people were also staying in the hotels where the South African cricket team was lodged.

The bookies chain is alleged to be operating from Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, the sources said, adding that the police was trying to find out the missing links before arriving at any conclusion in the case.

The sources also confirmed that some top bookies from Mumbai were involved in the scandal and police was gathering proofs before zeroing in on them.

TNS adds: Bollywood actor Kishan Kumar, brother of slain music baron Gulshan Kumar, is likely to be arrested in the cricket match-fixing case, following his discharge from a private hospital in Uttar Pradesh today.

Kishan Kumar is likely to be arrested from his Greater Kailash residence in Delhi, police sources said.

If he is arrested from Kailash Hospital in Noida, UP, where he undergoing treatment since Friday last, the police will have to seek transit remand from a court there, legal experts said.

The sources said Kishan Kumar would be produced in the court tomorrow indicating that he would be formally arrested late at night.

Mr Ramesh Gupta, lawyer for Kishan Kumar, said there was no immediate plan to seek anticipatory bail.

The hospital authorities had last night verbally informed the police that Kishan Kumar would be discharged on Thursday. And today they said in writing that the patient was “fit and could be discharged.”

The Chairman and Managing Director of Kailash Hospital, Dr Mahesh Sharma, said: “Since this is a medico-legal case, we have to inform the police authorities before allowing the patient to leave the hospital premises.”

Soon after the clearance, a team of Crime Branch personnel began questioning Kishan Kumar, whose name figured during the interrogation of Rajesh Kalra, the only accused arrested in the case so far.

Kishan Kumar, who was questioned on Wednesday by the Crime Branch officials, had pleaded innocence and told a press conference that he was in no way involved in the case.

Kalra, during his interrogation, had reportedly alleged that the Bollywood actor had paid the hotel bills of the prime accused in the case Sanjay, alias Sanjeev Chawla, the same hotel where the South African cricketer Hansie Cronje had stayed.

Kalra had also alleged that Kishan Kumar had allegedly placed a betting amount of more than Rs 40 lakh during the Pepsi one-day series.

Meanwhile, a Delhi court today remanded Kalra to two days’ Enforcement Directorate custody for interrogation in connection with possible hawala transactions in the scandal.

Metropolitan Magistrate Parveen Kumar remanded Kalra to ED custody after he was produced before him this afternoon by the Crime Branch.

Kalra will be produced before the court on Saturday by the ED. The court had earlier remanded him to 14 days judicial custody till April 27, in the case registered by the Crime Branch.

The court handed him to ED custody after the agency’s Assistant Legal Adviser Ashish Chandra Singh submitted that Kalra’s interrogation was needed in view of the FIR which indicated huge hawala transactions in the case.

The ED application was opposed by a relative of Kalra, who submitted that the enforcement agency had not served any notice on the accused and that the court had no power to remand the accused to the ED custody as there is a designated court for such cases.

Extradition if need be: SA
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, April 13 — South Africa today clarified that the issue of the extradition of its sacked cricket captain Hansie Cronje to India would be taken up by an independent judicial commission set up to look into the allegations of match-fixing during his recent tour of the country.

The commission, headed by a senior South African judge, would make recommendations including the imposition of penalties against Cronje and other players if the allegations were found correct, the South African High Commissioner to India, Ms Maite Nkoana-Mashabane told mediapersons here.

“The South African Government has begun the process of instituting an independent, judicial commission of inquiry, headed by a senior judge to conduct a full-scale examination into all aspect of the recent allegations. Extradition is not the beginning of the process but will be part of it if there is a need for that”, Ms Mashabane said when asked whether her government would entertain a request for the extradition of Cronje to India.

Whether Pretoria would assist the Delhi police in deciphering certain conversation in Afrikaan in the tapes, the South African High Commissioner said: “We will extend full cooperation to Indian authorities. But we will wait till we get a request from the Indian police through the External Affairs Ministry”.

Cronje has acknowledged “not having been entirely honest with everybody, and to having been in contact

with certain individuals who had been trying to influence matches. He also indicated that he received money in a separate incident not related to South Africa’s tour of India,” Ms Mashabane said quoting a statement released by the South African Sports Minister, Mr Ngeonde Balfour.

The envoy said in view of this development, Cronje would continue to remain withdrawn as captain and player from the South African cricket team till the outcome of investigations.

Ms Mashabane said the South African Department of Foreign Affairs would continue liaisoning with the Indian authorities and officials from both South Africa and India would be visiting each others’ countries soon.

Describing the incident as unfortunate, she stressed “ the relationship between our country and India remains unaffected by this issue.”

The envoy said her government had received “positive” response from the External Affairs Ministry on the request for copies of the first information report (FIR) filed by the Delhi police and access to tape recordings containing the alleged conversation between Cronje and the bookies.

South Africa, she said, had made it clear that it would extend all possible cooperation from its Foreign Ministry, the police and the sports authorities to their Indian counterparts to go into the root of the allegations of match-fixing.

Match-fixing ‘failure of human values’

MUMBAI, April 13 (UNI) — Former Chief Justice of India Y.V.Chandrachud said today that the incidents of match-fixing, which had rocked the cricket-playing nations, were nothing but “failure of human character.”

The apex court’s retired Chief Justice, who had probed into the match-fixing allegations levelled by former Indian all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar, said, “No law could prevent incidents of match fixing or keep a check on players — but one’s conscience could keep one away from such acts.”

Though there are not many laws which can put a check on it, the legal luminary feels that if one accepts money to fix a match they can be prosecuted in the country under Section 420 of the IPC. “But such incidents are a result of decline in values — and players only can keep a check on such incidents,” he added.

“It is sad that the inquiry report was never made public,” he told UNI here. He echoed the sentiments of former cricket board chief N.K.P. Salve, who is now in the International Cricket Committee panel on match fixing. He said the report should be made public so that the people come to know about the reality. “I do not know why the report was not published or made public,” he said.

When asked whether laws could be framed to prevent such match fixing incidents, he said, “Just laws cannot help, the players will have to be serious about it.”