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Journalism of Courage
The Abhijit Kale case reached a critical point today when it was revealed that the inquiry undertaken by DV Subba Rao for the BCCI had found the cricketer ‘‘prima facie guilty’’ of the charges of offering bribes to two national selectors.
The revelation, which came about during a hearing of Kale’s plea on his suspension by the BCCI, was made in Bombay High Court today when the Board’s counsel presented a copy of Subba Rao’s report before the court. Following the hearing, Justice Dilip Bhonsale referred Kale’s suspension issue back to the Pune civil court where the cricketer had originally filed the suit.
The findings of the inquiry suggest that Kale will be up before a disciplinary committee of the BCCI. That is what Subba Rao has sought and what is normal BCCI procedure though its president, Jagmohan Dalmiya, told this paper that he would comment only after receiving the report, probably on Friday.
When contacted, Kale said he was innocent and would fight to clear his name.
It would appear that he has a tough fight on his hands. BCCI counsel Goolam Vahanvati read out sections of Subba Rao’s report in his submission to the court:
• Kale had contacted selector Kiran More five times on his cellphone and, during one conversation, even allegedly offered him a bribe of Rs 10 lakh
• On August 5, Kale called selector Pranab Roy five times and later met him at an airport in Mumbai and offered him Rs 10 lakh to get selected in the team
• In May this year, Kale’s mother had allegedly met More at the latter’s residence in Vadodara and offered Rs 10 lakh to include Kale in the team.
Rao then recommended that the BCCI appoint another committee to ‘‘go into much more depth’’ while probing the charges against Kale. This probe, he said in the report, could be carried out by taking account of all material evidence and without getting ‘‘influenced’’ by the findings of his own report in any manner.
Janak Dwarkadas and Vineet Naik, counsel for Kale, opposed Vahanvati’s arguments by pointing out that the cricketer had called up the selectors to tell them that ‘‘his shoulder injury had healed and he was fit to be included’’ in the team, ‘‘not to offer them bribes’’. Later, Naik told The Indian Express that ‘‘the perception that the BCCI’s report has found Kale guilty of the bribery charges is wrong. The report doesn’t conclusively prove that Kale had called up the two selectors to offer them bribes.’’
