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Kishen Kumar moved to Tihar jail

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sangita Dhingra Sehgal on Tuesday ordered that Kishen Kumar, accused in the match-fixing scandal, be shifted to Tihar jail.

The judge passed the order after the court received a medical report from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences that said the accused did not need hospitalisation.

The court had asked for a medical report as Kishen Kumar had been getting himself admitted to hospitals on the plea that he had severe chest pain and unstable angina since April 7.

He was examined by a panel of doctors led by Dr S C Manchanda, the head of AIIM's cardiology department.

Kishen Kumar was taken to Tihar jail in an ambulance provided by AIIMS. Before he was whisked away, he told newsmen that he was innocent and he was being implicated in the case by the Delhi police and the enforcement directorate.

Earlier the court had witnessed a brief legal tussle between S S Bansal, the ED's counsel, and Suhel Khan and N K Bhardwaj, counsels for Kishen Kumar. Khan challenged the fitness report given by the doctors. He said they had not done a thorough examination of the accused. But the judge rejected the argument.

"The report clearly mentions that the doctors had examined the accused and they are of the opinion that he does not require hospitalisation. Since the accused had been provided medicines for hypertension and the other problems that he has been complaining about, therefore, the court directs that he should immediately be shifted to Tihar jail where he would remain till April 29," she said.

When the ED presented to the court that it had not been given copies of the investigations conducted by the crime branch so far, Judge Sehgal directed crime branch chief P K Srivastava to appear in person before the court on April 20.

She also directed the medical superintendent of Ram Manohar Lohia hospital to appear before her on April 19 to report on Rajesh Kalra's medical condition.

Kalra, an accused in the match-fixing case, is currently in the intensive care unit of that hospital.

The Delhi police, for its part, denied that there was any rift between the crime branch and enforcement directorate over any matter. "If the court directs us to hand over the file to the ED, we would do it happily," Srivastava told reporters.

Meanwhile, the Delhi police has decided to release the picture of Sanjeev Chawla, the prime accused in the case. "I have already issued necessary directives to the officers and the pictures of Sanjeev would be made available tomorrow," Srivastava said. "I think we got hold of the picture only yesterday."

Srivastava denied the reports appearing in some national dailies that Chawla was the informer of the Delhi police and had helped in 'fixing' Cronje. "There is no truth is this whatsoever," he said.

Surprisingly, the Delhi police still does not have much information about Chawla. "All that we know is that he has been involved in match-fixing. He is about 25 years of age. He came to India via Mauritius from South Africa. He left South Africa on February 1 and reached Bombay on February 2. And he left India on March 15 and was headed for London. Where is he now? I don't know," said the crime branch chief.

Srivastava also denied that the police officials have been in anyway helping the accused. Both the ED and the crime branch were happy that Kishen Kumar has been sent to jail. But officials of neither department would say anything as to when they would move court to seek police remand of the accused for interrogation.

"The way he has been going from one hospital to another I would not be surprised if he complains of chest pain in Tihar and is removed to hospital once more. We are prepared to wait. He would soon get well and then we would question him," said a senior police official.

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