Kishan Kumar gets advance bail

"The question is whether betting and match-fixing falls within the mischief of Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)", Justice Siddiqui observed and said Kumar has been able to make a case for anticipatory bail in the match-fixing scandal.

The court asked Kumar to furnish a personal bond and surety of Rs 25,000 in the trial court while asking him to surrender his passport before the police within a week.

Kumar, who is in judicial custody in a FERA violation case, had moved his anticipatory bail application in the High Court after police last week sought his remand from the trial court to facilitate his interrogation.

There is no immediate possibility of Kumar coming out of jail as a division bench of the High Court adjourned hearing on his application for regular bail in the FERA case to May 9.

Appreciating the efforts of the police to expose the hidden racket of match-fixing, the court said "Delhi police has done a splendid job by blowing the lid on a match-fixing scandal that has stunned the cricket world".

Meanwhile, a division bench comprising Justice Usha Mehra and Justice S N Kapoor issued notices to the police on another application by Kumar which said the taping of telephones of some people amounted to violation of the Indian Telegraph Act.

The bench asked the police to file its reply by May 11, when the application would be taken up for hearing.

Kumar’s counsel R K Anand said police has no power to tap phones of any person, except in a special circumstance.

"Section 5 of the Telegraph Act provides that police can only tap phones of a person when he becomes a threat to national security, public order and country’s relations with foreign nations. None of these conditions were prevailing in the present case," Anand contended.

This was strongly opposed by Additional Solicitor General Kirit Rawal, who said "match-fixing and satta rackets, controlled by underworld dons, pose a great threat to nation’s economy and amounted to disturbance of public order."

In a related development, Enforcement Directorate (ED) sought remand of Kumar and co-accused Rajesh Kalra from a designated lower court for their further interrogation in the FERA cases against them.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Sangeeta Dhingra-Sehgal directed Tihar Jail authorities to produce the accused before her tomorrow.

ED counsel Subhas Bansal said the remand of the accused was being sought in view of new material made available by the police to the Directorate recently.

Meanwhile, Kumar has claimed during questioning that he does not know English and would not be able to comment on notes collected by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

During questioning on Friday and Satuarday last week, ED officials sought Kumar’s statement on records seized by crime branch of Delhi Police and later handed over to ED officials, Directorate sources said.

The Directorate, which is probing the hawala angle in the sensational match-fixing scandal, would seek the help of a translator during further questioning of Kumar, they said.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police, which was unable to challenge the anticipatory bail of Kumar in the court today, said that London-based NRI Sanjeev Chawla had made calls to London from a mobile phone which was registered in the name of his brother.

Besides Chawla, South African Cricketer Hansie Cronje andfour other players have been charged by Delhi Police with match-fixing but all of them have denied their involvement.

Delhi Police has also completed the analysis of documents relating to the match-fixing scandal seized from various cities and is likely to arrest more people in this connection.

Delhi Police would soon send teams to various cities on the basis of the analysis to arrest bookies and punters whose role has been established in the scandal, which rocked the whole cricketing world, official sources said.

They said the police was trying to probe the source of the huge amount of money that was involved in the scandal.

The sleuths of crime branch have so far identified the underworld gang of Dubai-based Dawood Ibrahim behind the scandal but did not rule out possibility of involvement of some other gangs.

The sources said police was trying to find the whereabouts of a woman, who had allgedly acted as conduit between bookies and the South African cricketers.

The bookies chain is alleged to be operating from Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, the sources said, adding the police was trying to find out the missing links before arriving at any conclusion in the case.

APRIL 27 MEET

New Delhi: International Cricket Council President Jagmohan Dalmiya will head a list of cricket administrators, present and past, who will take part in the crucial meeting with Union Sports Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa here on April 27 to discuss the raging betting and match-fixing scandal.