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Mongia appears before CBI

India wicketkeeper Nayan Mongia, a key figure in the match-fixing and betting scandal, was Tuesday quizzed by the Central Bureau of Investigation for more than 90 minutes, about his knowledge and alleged involvement in the malpractice.

CBI sources said the cricketer, who has been named by Manoj Prabhakar as a witness to the Rs 2.5 million bribe offer of Kapil Dev in 1994, appeared before the investigating team, headed by joint director R N Sawani, around noon in response to the summons issued by the agency.

The sources said the team recorded Mongia's statements after completing his examination. Though the bureau did not disclose what transpired during the examination, Mongia is understood to have been asked about Kapil's alleged offer to Prabhakar as also his alleged involvement in match-fixing.

Prabhakar has said that Mongia, Navjot Singh Sidhu and Prashant Vaidya were witness to Kapil's bribe offer to under perform in a 1994 Singer Cup tournament match against Pakistan in Sri Lanka.

Recently, Mongia was also secretly interviewed by Prabhakar for web site tehelka.com, which came out with 'Fallen Heroes', a 50-odd hour video recording containing statements and allegations of the country's top cricketers and administrators past and present, and various people linked to the game in India.

Mongia had in the videotape admitted that he had knowledge about the bribe offer and had even gone to Prabhakar's room on hearing Prabhakar and Kapil argue.

UNI