CBI to probe deeper

The Central Bureau of Investigation is not yet finished with the murky dealings in cricket and is now investigating the nexus between the underworld mafia and some of India's leading cricketers and administrators, its director R K Raghavan disclosed in Delhi on Tuesday.

The probe into this nexus and its ramifications on national security is being conducted both within India and abroad, Raghavan indicated.

"We are going deep into the nexus the underworld has with cricket players and administrators. The nexus has been unearthed but the dimensions are yet to be fully understood," he said.

Without disclosing names, he said "a few Indian players" have links with the underworld, and that had been established during the agency's investigations into the betting and match-fixing scandal.

Asked if CBI investigators would go to Dubai and other Gulf countries as part of the probe, Raghavan said CBI sleuths kept travelling to various parts of the world. "They are already at it," he added.

Affirming that the CBI inquiry into betting and match-fixing was not over with the submission of the recent report, Raghavan did not rule out the possibility of a supplementary report on the role of cricketers and administrators.

"Our enquiry is alive. If circumstances warrant we will come out with another report. We are already going beyond the report we have submitted," the CBI director said.

Apart from the ramifications of national security, the CBI, Raghavan said, is looking into the nexus between the underworld and cricketers from the perspective of money laundering.

The CBI director, who recently attended an international conference on money laundering at Vancouver (Canada), said, "There is no limit to the ingenuity of the underworld in laundering money."

The CBI, he said, would cast its net wide to get to the bottom of the nexus between the underworld, cricketers and the game's administrators.

"The underworld has shown more than academic interest in the game. They have found that the game can be manipulated," he said.

Answering questions, Raghavan said the CBI is looking into the possibility of prosecuting Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Sharma, two of the cricketers named in the report on betting and match-fixing, who are both public servants.

The CBI director emphasised that under the Prevention of Corruption Act criminal misconduct by a public servant did not necessarily come through abuse of his office.

Under section 13 of the PCA, he said, a public servant could be charged with the criminal misconduct even if he obtains for himself or any other person any pecuniary advantage by corrupt or illegal means. Also if he obtains pecuniary advantage for any person without any public interest, he would attract the penal provision.

Raghavan drew attention to a warning in CBI's report on match-fixing that the underworld mafia can be expected to take overall control of the betting racket, if not checked immediately with a firm hand.

Negligence of the police and other authorities in allowing "wagering to turn into an organised racket, particularly with the involvement of the underworld mafia", was cited by CBI as the reason.

Glimpses of the underworld mafia's involvement could be seen from the testimonies of former India skipper Azharuddin and the team's former physiotherapist Ali Irani, where names of mafia dons Anees Ibrahim, Abu Salem and Sharad Shetty find mention.

The CBI has that said Azhar during his questioning had stated that "Abu Salem had rung him up on a couple of occasions to fix matches but he had refused."

The CBI, quoting Dr Ali Irani, said, "In most of the matches where fixing took was taking place, the clue was that the game would be 'on' only when (Sachin) Tendulkar got out because he was one player who could singlehandedly win a match and upset any calculation."

"It does appear that what may have been small-time wagering (which to some extent is inevitable) has now been replaced by an organised syndicate, and this syndicate has started interfering with the purity of the sport," the report said.

Mail Cricket Editor