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IT officials open Kapil's lockers

Income Tax officials today opened two lockers belonging to Kapil Dev, in his presence, and later disclosed to the media that jewellery worth Rs 22 lakh, plus a few other items, were found in the lockers.

IT officials also discovered sizeable amounts of jewellery from some lockers in Patiala in the name of Navjot Singh Sidhu, who like Kapil Dev had made a VDIS declaration in 1997.

Meanwhile, even as the average cricket fan looks at the recent 'Operation Gentleman' as a harbinger of hope that the ongoing scandal will eventually find a resolution, former Central Bureau of Investigations director Joginder Singh is less sanguine.

"Even if the players actually admit their role in match-fixing to the income tax authorities, the CBI cannot use that confession in a court of law," Singh points out, arguing that the agency's only course is to independently secure corroborative evidence to prove the guilt of players.

"The CBI has been investigating this matter for close to three months now and yet it has not been able to come out with anything substantial so far," Singh argues. "Since the CBI's recorded statements are not signed by the accused or even properly witnessed, the agency now has to find independent evidence to prove that various players were in fact involved in match-fixing. Even if the players were to confess before the income tax department, that cannot be used by the CBI to form the basis of a prosecution.

"However," the former CBI boss added, "any admission before a financial agency of the government of India is admissible in a court of law that is prosecuting economic crimes."

Joginder Singh has his own take on the allegations recently aired by Samata Party president Jaya Jaitley. "If the incident is true, then she should file a complaint against the concerned official, who allegedly asked her for a bribe, and help the CBI prosecute the corrupt official," he pointed out.

Matinee idol turned Member of Parliament (Gurdaspur) Vinod Khanna meanwhile echoed public sentiment when he said that the entire scandal had come as a very rude and unwelcome shock. "I have played cricket at the college level, even today I take part in fund-raising cricket matches, I continue to love the game. I hope the CBI comes out with something concrete out of its investigations."

Khanna's colleague in Parliament, and former India star Kirti Azad, confessed to a sense of shock when Manoj Prabhakar first revealed Kapil Dev as the man who allegedly offered him a bribe to underperform against Pakistan in a Singer Cup tournament in 1994. "Don't say that the game of cricket is not clean. I have played the game and it was always clean. But a few bad fish have spoilt the pond. The mess has to be cleaned up," Azad said.

To his way of thinking, July 20 -- the day the Income Tax authorities launched 'Operation Gentleman' -- was a black day for cricket in this country. "The raids were unprecedented," Azad said. "But I guess they were necessary to get corraborative evidence. We are now told that the department has unearthed wealth disproportionate to the known sources of the income of various cricket players.

"I must make it clear," Azad added, "that I do not agree with Ms Jaya Jaitley's pressure tactics against the income tax officials, and I think she was wrong when she refused to allow them to search her residence in Khirki Extension in South Delhi."

Azad however pointed out that unaccounted wealth does not automatically imply involvement in match-fixing. "We should give cricketers the benefit of doubt till they are proved guilty in a court of law," Azad said. "I felt sorry for Kapil Dev when I heard that the Gujarat government has dropped a chapter on Kapil Dev from the school books. I was also hurt when I read a news item that the citizens of Ludhiana have asked Kapil Dev to return the honour that they had conferred on him, along with a cash award."