NEW DELHI, APRIL 13: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will reopen the Gulshan Kumar murder case to investigate “linkages” with the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal. Kishan Kumar’s alleged involvement in the scandal and some “suspect transactions” of the Abu Salem gang have led to the case being reexamined.
The ED today got two days for custodial interrogation of Rajesh Kalra, so far the only accused in the match-fixing case who has been caught. ED sleuths will be questioning him about the hawala transactions by which the money was being routed to tax havens. The ED has also been informed about the suspected role of a kingpin in South Africa, who both Chawla and Cronje were in touch with on telephone and is believed to be aware of the hawala transactions.
The ED today received copies of some case files from the Delhi Police in the Cronje case even as its investigations into the alleged hawala transactions made by Nadeem, the main accused in the Gulshan Kumar murder case, were in progress.
Said a senior ED official: “The bookies are obviously not just working alone. We have some leads about the involvement of some Bahrain and Dubai-based gangs. This hardly comes as a surprise since the involvement of the `D’ company in match-fixing is widely known. What we have to find out is whether the Dubai gang was part of the Kalra-Chawla ring or not.”
The ED has officially asked the Delhi Police to provide it with the case evidence which detail the actual money trail. While the South African authorities have claimed that Cronje received around $ 15,000 dollars from the bookies, sources say the Delhi Police has detailed evidence of more transactions which will have a bearing on further investigations. Sources say the ED will question Kalra about the route of the money which was paid to Cronje as well as names of other recipients of the pay-offs.