Azhar’s `friend’ MK is a south Delhi jeweller

Sources in the police point out that 40-year-old Gupta was big-time bookie till very recently and put all his money to set up the jewellery showroom. “He is a good friend of Azharuddin,” an official said. “He probably left the match-fixing trade after starting the jewellery business,” the official added. Sources add that Gupta is a one-time partner of Anand Saxena, another alleged bookie from Defence Colony whose name featured in Rajesh Kalra’s interrogation by the Enforcement Directorate. Gupta is also said to have connections with a Vasant Kunj-based bookie and restaurant-owner who is currently absconding.

Sunil, who Cronje also named, is Sunil Dara alias Bittu, police suspect. Dara, a resident of Lajpat Nagar, is a well-known bookie who went underground ever since the match-fixing scandal was unearthed by the Delhi Police. Dara started off with a small dhaba in the area several years ago, police sources point out.

While Gupta’s father confirmed that his son had bought the showroom and started a jewellery showroom only on March 12 this year, he denied that Gupta was ever involved in match-fixing or betting. “He’s only been a cricket fan and a carrom player,” Lall said, sweating after an hour-and-a-half-long interrogation session behind closed doors by the slueths of the Central Bureau of Investigations. A team of CBI officials conducted a raid at AMS Jewellers and reportedly sought details of Gupta’s connections with Indian cricketers and Hansie Cronje. “They wanted to confirm links between Mukesh and Azharuddin and Cronje. They also took details of our bank accounts,” Lall revealed.

Sources added that Gupta went underground this morning while the family insisted that he is “somewhere in Delhi.”

The 40-year-old was a clerk in the GB Road branch of Syndicate Bank till about 10 years ago and lived in his ancestral house in Balli Maran, Central Delhi. The Guptas, which includes his elder brother’s family, his own and his parents, now own a sprawling bungalow in Defence Colony. The family moved from their Central Delhi home to Defence Colony in 1995 after Gupta bought and remodelled the house.

Gupta’s father was a clerk in Bulandshahar treasury and later served as an accountant in a shop in Ghantewala, Chandni Chowk. Gupta went to the Bishan Das Uttam Chand School in Balli Maran and took up his bank job after graduation. The family owned no other property then except the Central Delhi house, where Lall said the family lived “from the time Red Fort as built.”