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CBI team to quiz Ajay Sharma

A two-member Central Bureau of Investigation team, consisting of Joint Director R N Savani and Deputy Inspector General Y P Singh, has left for England on a seven-day trip aimed at collecting information relating to the ongoing match-fixing probe.

"The trip is part of our investigation, and they will be questioning Ajay Sharma while they are there," CBI spokesman S M Khan told rediff.com "They will also meet with Scotland Yard officials. However, a meeting with Sanjeev Chawla is not, at this point, on the cards."

Chawla, you will recall, is wanted by the Delhi police in connection with the First Information Report filed against former South African captain Hansie Cronje and others.

R N Savani, Joint Director, CBI told rediff.com, "The preliminary report of our inquiry into match-fixing will not be complete until we interview Ajay Sharma, who is a key figure in the case. Sharma has shown his inability to come back to India before the second week of September due to his engagements in England, and therefore it was necessary for us to send a team there."

In an unrelated development, Union Minister of State for Sport Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa on Thursday drew the attention of Finance Minister Yashwant Singh and Defence Minister George Fernandes to the recent allegations levelled by Samata Party general secretary Jaya Jaitley against income tax officials.

Dhindsa pointed out that Jaitley was misusing her position to raise unnecessary controversies, and protested against her attempts to drag his name into it. Arguing that her allegations were an attempt to put pressure on the IT department, Dhindsa asked Sinha and Fernandes -- who is also the Samata Party president -- to ensure that this was not repeated.

In a subsequent statement to the media, Dhindsa said, "I respect Jaitleyji, but I must protest against her recent statements. She has tried to both threaten, and coerce, the income tax department; it is not good for a leader of her stature to be making such statements."

"Why," a close associate of Dhindsa's asked, "is Jaitley so worried about the IT raid on Ajay Jadeja? What is her interest in getting him a clean chit?"

Moot questions both -- and indicative of nothing so much as the fact that the income tax department is now on the warpath, vis a vis Jaitley and, by association, Jadeja.

"Since Jaya Jaitley has challenged us and said that we are spreading lies, we will go all out to prove her wrong," an official, who was part of the raiding party on Jadeja's premises, said. The IT department is presently investigating investments such as the Rs 5.5 million spent on buying a flat in W Block, Greater Kailash II, and several more million rupees spent in doing up the flat.

The CBI has also summoned a top manager of a dotcom company, to inquire into its association with Jadeja. The cricketer reportedly holds over 5 per cent stake in the company.

A senior CBI officer added that "Ajay Jadeja is also quite busy and is not available to us right now. He has asked us for some more time."

The finance ministry, meanwhile, has directed the IT department's Director General (investigation) S C Parija to "use good judgement" when passing on information regarding the ongoing investigations, to the media.

“There are clear instructions from the ministry that top officials will not speak to the press about the investigations," a CBI official told this correspondent.

The gag order is reportedly in place because of the ongoing session of Parliament, and the government's desire that no unseemly controversies, such as the one unleashed recently by Jaitley, surface during this period.

The effect of the gag order was noticed by this correspondent today. Official sources, normally quick to confirm or deny facts, resorted to stonewalling when this correspondent asked whether the sealed lockers opened on Wednesday belonged to Mukesh Gupta, one of the figures mentioned in the matchfixing controversy.

Former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, meanwhile, refused comment on the recent IT raid on his home. "What can I say? They have conducted the searches and it is now for them to say whatever they want to, on the matter," Sidhu told rediff.com

Interestingly, IT officials admit that Sidhu was not on the original list of targets, which was drawn up several weeks ago. However, a recent cover story on Sidhu, in The Week which spoke of the cricketer's wealth, prompted the department to include his name in the list. It was only during the raid that they learnt of the VDIS -- Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme -- disclosures made by the former India opener.

In course of the raid, Sidhu was questioned most rigorously about his state of the art Lancer -- a line of questioning obviously inspired by the Week article -- about how Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan had become enamoured of the car and offered to buy it for a huge sum, only for Sidhu to turn Khan down.

Sidhu for his part told this correspondent that the car was a gift from a friend. He did not, however, reveal the friend's name.