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CBI denies arresting bookmakers

Onkar Singh, in Delhi

The Central Bureau of Investigation denied reports that it arrested two leading bookmakers from Lucknow on Friday.

Agency officials told rediff.com Saturday morning there is no truth in reports that appeared in leading national newspapers.

"There is no truth in the reports that appeared in leading national dailies this morning, that the CBI has arrested two leading bookies of Lucknow after a raid conducted on their offices and residences. We were looking for one bookie by the name of Pawan and we manage to trace him late at night. The agency officials are still busy interrogating him about some information that we had on him. If we make some arrests we will let the media know," said CBI spokesperson S M Khan.

Meanwhile, agency officials refuse to confirm or deny whether they quizzed former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin about his association with Ajay Sharma. "We have enough information on Ajay Sharma. We will wait till he comes back," said a source.

Manoj Prabhakar, at whose behest the government of India decided to hand over the investigation into match-fixing allegations to the CBI, is now a disillusioned man. The former India allrounder had hoped that once the CBI started its probe against former India captain Kapil Dev, who he alleged offered him Rs 2.5 million to under perform in a Singer Cup match in 1994 against Pakistan, he would get a good support from some of his erstwhile colleagues and be able to nail Kapil. However, he has found little of it.

"I don't think anything is going to come out of it. The moment Kapil's name came out things turned the other way around," Prabhakar is believed to have told a few scribes during an informal chat with them one evening.

In another related development, Divya Nautiyal, managing director of Apace Finance company, told rediff.com that Manoj Prabhakar was never at any point of time a director of Apace Finance company. He also denied the charges levelled in a national daily that the Apace group has been involved in match-fixing.