NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Rediff Shopping

Shop & gift from thousands of products!   Books     Music       Apparel   Jewellery   Flowers   More..      Safe Shopping

Nationwide IT raids on cricketers, bookies

Onkar Singh in Delhi and Faisal Shariff in Bombay

In the largest-ever raid in the history of independent India, teams of income tax sleuths, backed up by Central Bureau of Investigation officials and local policemen, fanned out across the country in simultaneous raids on 87 homes and offices of past and present cricketers, cricket officials, big-time punters and bookmakers, including 37 in Delhi. Even the Board of Control for Cricket headquarters in south Bombay was not spared.

Among the premises reportedly raided were those of Kapil Dev, Ajay Sharma, Ajay Jadeja, Nikhil Chopra and Manoj Prabhakar in Delhi; Navjot Singh Sidhu in Patiala, Mohammad Azharuddin in Bombay and Hyderabad, BCCI treasurer Kishore Rungta in Jaipur, and former International Cricket Council chairman Jagmohan Dalmiya in Calcutta.

In addition to these, 15 bookies and their associates, including six in Delhi, were raided as part of the mammoth, coordinated operation. According to a senior income-tax officer in Bombay, Sobhan Mehta, believed to be one of the biggest bookies in western India, was among those raided. This was later corroborated by Union Minister of State for Finance Dhananjay Kumar in an interview to Star News.

Director General (IT-Investigations) S C Parija told rediff.com that the raids did have a definite focus. "We carried out the raids on the basis of specific information, and are seizing documents relating to our investigations," Parija said, adding that the raids would continue well into the night, and beyond if necessary.

Parija told rediff.com that his department, which conducted the raids jointly with the CBI only in Bombay, Delhi and Ahmedabad (the IT department went solo in the other centres), has sealed ten lockers in Bombay and 12 in Delhi.

In Delhi, the raiding parties fanned out from the Paharganj police station around 0800 IST, to various locations in Delhi.

Kapil Dev's offices in Babar Road and Maharani Bagh, his home in Sundar Nagar in Chandigarh and Hotel Kapil, also in Chandigarh, were the subject of simultaneous raids.

Kapil Dev, along with wife Romi, were at home when the raiding party came calling. Kapil did not come out once the raids began, nor were the media, or his friends, allowed to enter the house.

Late in the evening, Kapil did step out of his house in shorts, but refused to speak to waiting newsmen.

Meanwhile, other parties hit Ajay Jadeja's home in Greater Kailash II, and his media office in South Extension, Delhi. Jadeja is not in Delhi at this point, but his father and ex-MP Daulatsinh Jadeja, brother Ajit, and sister-in-law Anita were present during the raids.

Other teams hit the homes of cricketer Ajay Sharma, businessmen Mukesh Gupta and Ratan Mehta, as also Rajesh Kalra, all of whom have been named in one connection or other in the match-fixing and betting scandal now under investigation.

The homes of Nikhil Chopra and Navjot Singh Sidhu were also reportedly raided as part of the simultaneous swoop, income tax officials said.

In Calcutta, the home of former ICC chairman Jagmohan Dalmiya was hit by a raiding party early on Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, in Jaipur, IT officials raided the office of the Rajasthan Cricket Association, and the home of BCCI treasurer Kishore Rungta, as part of the nationwide move.

In Bombay, a raiding party comprising 10 IT sleuths and two policemen arrived at the door of Mohammad Azharuddin's duplex flat, on the sixth and seventh floors of Wit's End, the building located on plot number 70, Hill Road, Bandra.

Finding the door locked, the sleuths camped before the door, making arrangements to procure the keys. After a wait of a few hours, Azharuddin's brother-in-law, arrived with the keys, the doors were opened, and the raid began.

Simultaneously, Azharuddin's home in Hyderabad, and wife Sangeeta Bijlani's home (Flat No 503, 8th floor, Daffodils Housing Society, Oshiwara, Bombay) were also raided.

The IT sleuths meanwhile have tracked down Alvin Saldhana, Bombay builder and the man behind Global Event Management.

The company, GEM -- which features on its payrolls the likes of former India star Sandeep Patil and former Bombay Cricket Association board member Prakash Kelkar -- is primarily into event management, having in the recent past put together the India-Pakistan and India-South Africa veterans fixtures.

Interestingly, though the BCCI has not till date given out any news about such an event, Saldhana confirms he has the rights, and the requisite permission, for an India versus Pakistan fixture to be played in Oman on November 10.

Saldhana's current involvement with the IT authorities, though, comes from the fact that he is the builder who sold the Bandra property to Azharuddin. The IT sleuths have issued him a summons, asking for all deeds and relevant papers relating to the sale of the property. "I am trying to get the paperwork together," Saldhana told rediff.com

Another raiding party hit the BCCI's Brabourne Stadium HQ.

P K Sharma, director-general of investigation, income tax, told rediff.com, "The raids on the cricketers and bookies are a joint effort by the CBI and income-tax authorities. We are going to scan the papers and get the bank accounts of all the cricketers whose places we are raiding."

Asked whether anything incriminating had been found, Sharma said, "We have just started the raids. They could continue till tomorrow. It is a long procedure."

Meanwhile, all was calm outside the Sahitya Sahavas home of former India captain Sachin Tendulkar, where there is no sign of any official activity.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report