HC summons for Prabhakar and five others

MUMBAI, APRIl 18: The Mumbai High Court today issued summons to former all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar and five others in a Rs 5 crore defamation suit filed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI against them.Apart from Prabhakar, the other defendants are Hathway Investments Ltd, owners of the magazine Outlook, Deepak Shourie, its president and publisher; Vinod Mehta, its editor and Anirudha Bahal and Krishna Prasad, both correspondents.

Prabhakar had alleged in an interview to the magazine in June last year that there was betting and match fixing in Indian cricket and that he was personally approached by a team-mate to 8220;perform below par8221; in order to 8220;sabotage8221; the match in Pakistan8217;s favour during the 1994 series in Sri Lanka.BCCI then shot off a letter to Prabhakar asking him to substantiate his allegations by naming the team-mate who had allegedly tried to bribe him. Prabhakar, however, replied that even if he named the person, nothing concrete will come out of the wholeaffair.Subsequently, BCCI appointed an inquiry committee, headed by former supreme court chief justice YV Chandrachud, to probe Prabhakar8217;s allegations.

On November 17 last, the committee gave a clean chit to the Indian cricketers. by describing the charges of betting and match-fixing as a figment of imagination. Prabhakar was also pulled up for refusing to name the team-mate who had attempted to lure him with a bribe.The committee noted 8220;the allegation deserves no further attention except that they show that Prabhakar had no regard for truth whatsoever.8221; Justice Chandrachud also held that 8220;there is undoubtedly large scale betting in cricket,8221; but that was a law and order problem.

He further noted, 8220;betting, like drinking, is a common human weakness. One cannot, therefore, rule out the possibility that some Indian players may be laying the flutter of a bet. But it is insufficient to conclude that they lay bets for losing a match.8221;Armed with the Chandrachud committee report, the BCCI filed a suiturging that Prabhakar had thus sought to malign the board by levelling baseless allegations. It was pleaded that BCCI was not interested in any amount of money from Prabhakar and that whatever amount the court awarded to the plaintiff by way of costs would be used for cricket welfare.