Sting-op: Ganguly asks top cop to probe

“I am seeking legal opinion on what happened last night,” Ganguly said shortly after attending the CAB’s annual general meeting at the BC Roy Club House at Eden Gardens. “I have spoken to the Police Commissioner,requesting him to carry out an investigation. Let’s see what happens.”

The stylish left-hander of yesteryears pointed out that this fresh controversy is not much of a bother for him. “Nothing embarrasses me. All this is part and parcel of life,” he said with a lop-sided smile when asked if the sting operation has embarrassed him in anyway.

Thursday’s sting operation,carried out by Channel 10,a Bengali news network,claims that the restaurant’s third floor lounge bar was being used as a sleaze dance joint,which,the channel alleged,was being run illegally. The restaurant’s management,it claimed,had been outsourcing the lounge bar to an agent who was allegedly misusing it as a sleaze stopover and “pick-up joint”.

The Ganguly family has summarily rubbished the sting operation and the development has drawn comments from various quarters.

Union Minister of State for Tourism Sultan Ahmed,who was also present at the CAB summit,reacted sharply,trashing the accusation as nothing but a “planted thing”. “Look at the timing of the sting operation,it is nothing but a plant,” Ahmed said.

It has come exactly on eve of Sourav’s debut in the CAB AGM. “It was so well timed that one doesn’t even need to think too much about it. This is aimed at maligning Sourav ahead of his first day in a major cricket administration meeting in Bengal,” he added.

Equally in favour of Ganguly was Manas Mukherjee,who also attended the AGM chaired by CAB president Jagmohan Dalmiya.

“I believe this is a planted case to malign Sourav. We should look beyond this and rather focus on the good things that Sourav did at the AGM,” Mukherjee said.

The restaurant drama pushed Ganguly’s AGM debut to the backburner,even as the former Indian skipper began his new innings at the CAB with a bang. Representing Sultan Ahmed’s club Mohammedan At the AGM,Ganguly raised a clutch of hard cricket-related questions that left the Dalmiya-led administration uneasy.