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Delhi cops feel vindicated

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

Crime Branch officials of the Delhi Police are a happy lot as proceedings in South Africa against former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje have vindicated their case.

"We have all along been saying that we have a solid case against Cronje, but the media was not prepared to believe us. Now that Hershel Gibbs, Wiliams and others have given statements before the judicial commission confirming that Cronje had made monetary offers to them to lose matches in India, we have reason to feel happy about it," said Crime Branch chief Pradeep Srivastav.

"But the developments in South Africa have in no way affected investigations in the match-fixing case registered by the Delhi Police. We are continuing our work as usual. Of course, developments in South Africa have strengthened our case. All those who thought that we were merely trying to hook on to someone big realise that we had done our home work before registering a first information report against a big name in international cricket," Srivastav told rediff.com.

Has the commission invited Ishwar Singh, the inspector who first stumbled upon the case, to depose in South Africa? "So far we have no information on that. If someone is named by the commission, then only that official will go. Normally, senior officials accompany juniors on such trips," said another official associated with the investigations in the Cronje case.

On the extradition of Sanjeev Chawla, who is in London even though he is a principal accused in the case, the official admitted that there were some impediments. "What is the point in rushing to court and asking for non-bailable warrants to be issued against Chawla when the paper work is not complete? We are doing our work. To the media it may seem slow, but we are going pretty fast. Wait for sometime, we will get him as well," he promised.

The officials were also delighted over reported statements issued by some leading South African cricket players that they were prepared to travel to India and depose in court if necessary. But they were too optimistic about it because if the South African government prosecutes Cronje, he cannot be tried and punished for the same offence again, as per Indian law.

Jjoint commissioner of police (crime branch) Dr K K Paul is leaving for Lyon in France to attend a meeting called by Interpol and discuss match-fixing and how to deal with it.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, which is looking into the overall aspect of match-fixing is preparing to requestion Navjot Siddhu, Ajit Wadekar and leading cricket players with regard to allegations against Kapil Dev by Manoj Prabhakar.

Prabhakar had alleged that Kapil had offered him Rs 25 lakh for under-performing in a match against Pakistan in 1994 Singer Cup tournament in Sri Lanka. Sidhu and Wadekar had earlier denied that they knew about the incident. But by videorecording their informal conversation, Prabhakar exposed not only the two former cricketers but several others as well.

The Betting Scandal: The full story