Muthiah, Lele meet CBI officials

Onkar Singh in Delhi

Senior Board of Control of Cricket in India officials visited the Central Bureau of Investigation's Lodhi Complex headquarters in the capital and submitted the BCCI's balance sheets. The BCCI team was led by its president, A C Muthiah. Board secretary Jaywant Lele and treasurer Kishore Rungta accompanied him to the CBI office.

The BCCI team arrived at the CBI office around noon and was closeted with the officers investigating the matchfixing scandal for more then three hours. After the meeting, Muthiah denied that the BCCI officials had been summoned to explain issues in regard to the matchfixing or television rights controversy.

"This was a mutually arranged meeting. The CBI officials wanted to know how the Board functioned and who were the key figures. They asked us for balance sheets which we handed over to them. They also wanted to know how the subcommittees were appointed and how they functioned. All the details were given to them. Besides this, nothing else was discussed," the Board president explained.

He denied the report that CBI officials had called the BCCI team after Rs fixed deposit receipts worth 98 crore (Rs 980 million) reportedly were found at Rungta's home in Jaipur when he was raided by the income tax department on July 20.

CBI officials, however, denied Muthiah's claim that it was a "mutually arranged meeting." This meeting, they said, took place at the CBI's directive.

CBI spokesman S M Khan confirmed that the two member Bureau team led by Joint Director R N Savani had returned from England. "They spoke to cricketer Ajay Sharma and asked him all the questions that needed to be asked. They also met Scotland Yard officials. The team is satisfied with its visit," Khan said.

During Muthiah's 20-minute chat with reporters, Lele and Rungta refused to answer questions.

With Friday's deposition, the CBI has so far recorded statements from 12 cricketers/officials including Sunil Dev, member-secretary of the Delhi District Cricket Association, former BCCI president I S Bindra, former team manager Ajit Wadekar, cricketers Manoj Prabhakar, Mohammed Azharuddin, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Nayan Mongia, Ajay Jadeja and Nikhil Chopra besides some bookies.

Mail Cricket Editor