IPL spot fixing: Game-changing cops of Delhi Police who busted cricket scandals
On April 7, 2000, the then Joint Commissioner of Delhi Police, KK Paul, announced that his men had proof that the captain of the South Africa cricket team,HansieCronje and three teammates, including opener Herschelle Gibbs, fixed matches in a series played in India. An Inspector in Paul's Crime Branch Unit,Ishwar Singh, cracked the case after listening to hours of phone conversations between bookies and Cronje.
Singh was actually tracking the activities of a smuggler when he stumbled upon a bookie called Sanjeev Chawla talking about cricket matches. The person on the other end was Cronje, who promised Chawla that he would throw matches in the one-day series against India. The world of cricket would never be the same again.
Cut to 13 years later. On Thursday, Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar revealed that spot-fixing had returned to haunt cricket, this time in the ongoing IPL. The case was cracked by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Special Cell, Sanjeev Yadav, who after more than a month of phone surveillance, attended three controversial IPL matches to witness S Sreesanth and twoRajasthan Royals teammates do mischief to perfection. This case too was a classic case of providence as the initial lead that Yadav worked on was related to the Mumbai underworld's plans of a terror strike.
Match Record
This is familiar territory for Kumar. The top cop, during his days in the CBI, had played a key role in a full-scale probe by the agency in 2000 on malpractices in Indian cricket after the Cronje expose. Kumar had arrested an Indian bookie named Mukesh Gupta who spilled the beans on the alleged involvement of the then Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin, bowler Manoj Prabhakar, wicket keeper Nayan Mongia and allrounder Ajay Jadeja in fixing matches.
All these players were questioned by a special three-member CBI team headed by the then Joint Director Ravindra Nath Sawani, Deputy Inspector General YP Singh and Superintendent of Police MA Ganapati. The comprehensiveness of the CBI probe was acknowledged globally. Sawani quit the IPS to head the ICC Anti-Corruption and Security Unit in 2007. In 2012, after his term ended, ICC turned to his deputy, YP Singh, who also quit the IPS for the job.
The BCCI picked Sawani last year to head its anti-corruption unit. Yet, these cops are frustrated that the exposed cricketers were never prosecuted. The CBI probe ended without even lodging an FIR because legal opinion pointed to nebulous position of the law regarding match-fixing. The cricketers got away with bans that ended their careers.
In the Cronje case, the Delhi Police have not been able to file charges. Reason: non-cooperation from the South African authorities. The three bookies arrested in the case have been out on bail for over a decade. Will the IPL scam meet a similar end? The police claim they have a "water-tight" case with phone records of all three players who have been booked for cheating the general public and criminal conspiracy under Indian Penal Code. They are confident that the cricketers would get a bigger punishment than bans.
Singh was actually tracking the activities of a smuggler when he stumbled upon a bookie called Sanjeev Chawla talking about cricket matches. The person on the other end was Cronje, who promised Chawla that he would throw matches in the one-day series against India. The world of cricket would never be the same again.
Cut to 13 years later. On Thursday, Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar revealed that spot-fixing had returned to haunt cricket, this time in the ongoing IPL. The case was cracked by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Special Cell, Sanjeev Yadav, who after more than a month of phone surveillance, attended three controversial IPL matches to witness S Sreesanth and twoRajasthan Royals teammates do mischief to perfection. This case too was a classic case of providence as the initial lead that Yadav worked on was related to the Mumbai underworld's plans of a terror strike.
Match Record
This is familiar territory for Kumar. The top cop, during his days in the CBI, had played a key role in a full-scale probe by the agency in 2000 on malpractices in Indian cricket after the Cronje expose. Kumar had arrested an Indian bookie named Mukesh Gupta who spilled the beans on the alleged involvement of the then Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin, bowler Manoj Prabhakar, wicket keeper Nayan Mongia and allrounder Ajay Jadeja in fixing matches.
All these players were questioned by a special three-member CBI team headed by the then Joint Director Ravindra Nath Sawani, Deputy Inspector General YP Singh and Superintendent of Police MA Ganapati. The comprehensiveness of the CBI probe was acknowledged globally. Sawani quit the IPS to head the ICC Anti-Corruption and Security Unit in 2007. In 2012, after his term ended, ICC turned to his deputy, YP Singh, who also quit the IPS for the job.
The BCCI picked Sawani last year to head its anti-corruption unit. Yet, these cops are frustrated that the exposed cricketers were never prosecuted. The CBI probe ended without even lodging an FIR because legal opinion pointed to nebulous position of the law regarding match-fixing. The cricketers got away with bans that ended their careers.
In the Cronje case, the Delhi Police have not been able to file charges. Reason: non-cooperation from the South African authorities. The three bookies arrested in the case have been out on bail for over a decade. Will the IPL scam meet a similar end? The police claim they have a "water-tight" case with phone records of all three players who have been booked for cheating the general public and criminal conspiracy under Indian Penal Code. They are confident that the cricketers would get a bigger punishment than bans.
Source : By Aman Sharma, ET Bureau
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