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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, APRIL 8: Involvement of a failed Bollywood actor in the international match-fixing and betting case, in which South African skipper Hansie Cronje and four of his teammates have been named, was being investigated today by Delhi Police.
The actor is suspected to have played a key role in the alleged match-fixing racket in which tens of thousands of US Dollars are believed to have changed hands through hawala transactions, police sources said, even as Cronje dismissed the charges as "completely without foundation".
Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) K K Paul, while refusing to either confirm or deny the actor’s involvement, merely said, "We are investigating and those found guilty would be arrested."
Meanwhile, South Delhi businessman Rajesh Kalra, arrested here yesterday in connection with the case, was grilled by sleuths of the Crime Branch throughout the night at R K Puram police station.
Kalra, charged with providing the cellular phone to Cronje, has been quoted by a weekly as saying the one-day series between India and South Africa was "fixed" at about 40,000 to 50,000 US Dollars.
The cell phone remains to be traced.
Police is also in the process of seeking Interpol’s help in the case, including tracing the whereabouts of London-based NRI Sanjay alias Sanjeev Chawla, who is alleged to have struck the deal with Cronje at a city hotel, the sources said.
Meanwhile, legal experts here said that it would be difficult for the Delhi Police to prove the authenticity of the alleged taped conversation between Cronje and the bookie.
"The exercise to verify the authenticity of the recorded voice is so cumbersome that it will not be an easy task for any investigating agency, especially when an accused is from a foreign country," a senior CBI prosecutor who has handled many sensitive cases said on condition of anonymity.
He said though the court may not reject the evidential value of a recorded talk outrightly, the voice of the accused has to be matched by an expert with the recorded one produced as evidence by the investigation agency.
Noted criminal lawyer Ashok Arora said, "The recorded voice of an accused person can only be used as a corroborative evidence against him but not as an independent evidence.
"It will depend to a great extent on foolproof establishment of the identity, time and place of the recording of the voice of the accused," he added.
Arora, who has handled St Kitts forgery case against Chandraswami, Lakhubhai Pathak cheating case and cases pertaining to Jain Hawala scam, said the most important thing for prosecution would be to prove that the entire conversation between the two persons was an uninterrupted talk and not in bits and pieces as also to its link with the crime.
"Once a chain in the talk is broken its admissibility will become doubtful as it will be then considered only a doctored version," he said.
Agreeing with Arora, the senior CBI prosecutor said, "If the investigating agency fails to establish exact place and time of the conversation, establishing the identity of the persons will be meaningless." Standing counsel of city police in Delhi High Court, K C Mittal said registration of FIR was only a basic legal requirement to initiate investigation.
"The case can be made tight after all loose ends are tied together and that is why the police is approaching Interpol for help," he said adding, "It is premature at this stage to arrive at a conclusion because the case has to be thoroughly probed."
The CBI prosecutor said that once the chargesheet is filed in the case after a detailed investigation, the Court could summon the accused and take recording of their voices. These recorded voices could then be given to experts to match that with the tapes on the basis of which the police had initiated probe into the case and registered an FIR, he said.
