The Delhi Police on Monday filed the chargesheet in the much publicised match-fixing scandal involving former South African skipper Hansie Cronje. The match-fixing scam was exposed by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police in year 2000 and it shook the very foundation of the world cricket.
Beside Cronje, the investigating officials named, failed Bollywood actor Kishan Kumar (brother of T-Series founder Gulshan Kumar), london-based bookie Sanjeev Chawla, bookie Manmohan Khattar, Delhi-based bookie Rajesh Kalra and Sunil Dara alias Bittoo for their involvement in the match-fixing during India — South Africa cricket series in 2000. Peter Strydom, David Williams, Nicky Boje and Herschelle Gibbs, the four other South African players were also investigated for their roles but charges against them could not be substantiated.
On July 13, 'The Pioneer' has reported that the Delhi Police is going to file chargesheet soon in 13 years old case and mentioning the name of Kumar besides bookies.
Hansie Cronje, the former skipper of South Africa has already died in a plane crash incident in 2002. The charge sheet was filed before Magistrate Akash Jain as Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Amit Bansal was on leave. CMM Amit Bansal will consider on the 90 page charge sheet on Tuesday.
The chargesheet is mostly based on South Africa's King Commission report, confession of Cronje and telephonic intercepts. Investigators claimed that Sanjeev Chawla, the master bookie and Manmohan Khattar are hiding in United Kingdom (UK) and United Sates (US) respectively. Red Corner Notices against these two accused persons have already been issued by the Interpol and the process of their extradition will be taken up since the chargesheet has been filed before the designated court.
The Delhi Police, in its chargesheet containing 67 sets of documents, said that as per the statements recorded before the Kings Commission, a fixed match was called "color" while the person who accepts bet was called "bookie" and the person who had placed the bet was called "punter".
The chargesheet mentions that Chawla had gone to london from India on March 15, 2000 and never came back and he was operating from the United Kingdom.
"The identity of the accused persons was fixed on the basis of the matching of their voice samples with the recorded conversations and the analysis of calls made on their mobile phones based on the subscriber details of these mobile phones and on the basis of their disclosures," said the chargesheet, which also includes names of 65 persons as witnesses. It further said that the forensic reports of the voice of the accused persons have matched with the sample voices and it "nails the guilt of the accused."
It was in April 2000 when the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police had exposed the match-fixing scandal when they intercepted calls of a london-based bookie.
The chargesheet was filed almost 13 years after when the Special Cell of Delhi Police had exposed IPl spot-fixing scandal involving Indian pacer S Sreesanth and two other cricketers of Rajasthan Royals. The case was later transferred to the CBI for further investigations.