And now a South African middleman

When asked about the involvement of the South African national, DCP Crime P K Srivastava said: “The name has come up. We have learnt of someone through whom the cricketers and the bookies got in touch.”

Sources said that Cronje and Chawla stayed in the same hotel in Cochin and the bill for Chawla’s stay is alleged to have been footed by actor Kishan Kumar. The police are trying to ascertain whether Kumar also paid his bills for his stay in Mumbai and Bangalore.

The deal, according to police sources, was struck apparently on March 8 at Taj Regency Hotel in Kochi where Cronje, along with his teammates and Chawla, was putting up, adds PTI.

Cronje, during his stay at the hotel in Kochi, had allegedly made a call to a number in South Africa, and Chawla also made a call to the same number later, PTI said quoting sources.

Kalra is claimed to have said during his interrogation that the first match at Kochi was also fixed but the two suffered a major loss as the visiting team scored over 300 runs in the match.

Chawla and Kalra had a big fight, it is alleged, as the latter accused the former of not seeking an assurance from the visiting captain about the deal, the agency added.

DCP Srivastava, meanwhile, stated that only cellphone conversations were tapped. He added that even before the police began monitoring the conversations, Cronje and Chawla were in touch with each other. “Names of some Indian businessmen had come up in connection with match-fixing and their phones were being monitored. One such telephone set went to Cronje (Chawla reportedly gave Cronje a mobile phone which was tapped),” Srivastava said. When asked why the recorded conversation was being kept a secret, he said, “The voice tapes were sealed immediately because that’s required under Indian laws.”

While the investigating police officers waited for Kishan Kumar to be discharged from hospital, raids were conducted at the Chawlas’ garment export house in Jangpura. It is learnt that the police have also sought details of the bank accounts of Kishan Kumar. A senior official said: “We have also sent requests to the Interpol to get the bank account details of Chawla and the others involved.”