Prabhakar pleads 'innocent'

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Banned cricketer Manoj Prabhakar, who was being chased by the Uttaranchal police for his alleged involvement with a fly-by-night leasing and finance company, and faces charges of "cheating" and "fraud", on Monday pleaded his innocence in the whole case.

Prabhakar was, last week, granted a stay by the Uttaranchal high court against a non-bailable warrant issued by a lower court in Haldwani for his involvement in what is said to be a multi-crore scam.

Addressing a press conference in Lucknow on Monday evening, Prabhakar said, "I have come here to clarify my position; I have nothing whatsoever to do with Apace Leasing and Finance Company, least of all being its director or managing director."

Currently under liquidation, the company is charged by investors with "defrauding" them, and projecting the one-time famous cricketer as its managing director.

"It was Prabhakar's name that gave the company much credibility and led us to make investments," said one of the complainants in the report lodged with the police in Haldwani town of the new hill state of Uttranchal. The case was registered under sections 420 and 406 of the Indian Penal Code.

However, Prabhakar pleaded before media persons. "The only time I happened to appear in public before the directors of the finance company was for the launching of my Naturence brand of products, that was entrusted to Apace."

The former India cricketer suspects that the photographs taken during the launching of Naturence could have been used to mislead people to believe that he was a somebody in the company.

When a reporter drew his attention to the fact that some documents presented by the complainants bore his signature, the cricketer found a ready alibi.

"Lot of my fans used to take my autograph at these launching ceremonies and I would not be surprised if some of those autographs were later misused in this manner."

Prabhakar went on to add, "You see, even I had deposits of some Rs 25 lakhs [2.5 million] in Apace and I am still trying to recover that."

Asked how he felt about the match-fixing scandal that he was the first to expose, Prabhakar said, "I must say I have succeeded in my mission to cleanse Indian cricket of its ills."

He also claimed: "Today all cricketers are absolutely clean and I have reason to believe that things like match-fixing will not be repeated."

He also did not rule out the possibility of his entering politics.

You can also read:
Prabhakar denies links with Apace
'We will welcome him with a garland of chappals'
Another cheating case against Prabhakar
Prabhakar declared 'proclaimed offender'
Arrest warrant against Prabhakar stayed