The B S Brar Chat
What started as an ordinary investigation into betting and bribery, took on sensational overtones on April 7, when the Delhi police announced that they had conclusive evidence indicating that South African players, including skipper Hansie Cronje, had been involved in fixing matches during the recent five-game, one-day series between South Africa and India. The police said that as part of their investigation, they had tape-recorded conversations of the South African captain and others. B S Brar, additional commissioner of police, Delhi, who is in the thick of the investigations, was on The Rediff Chat to throw more light on the murky issue.
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:5 IST)
Good evening! I am here to take your questions.
Shailja (Wed Apr 12 19100 6:24 IST)
Who are the other names that you plan to implicate in this scam?
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:7 IST)
shailaja: The investigation is on and during the course of investigation, whatever names come up, shall be disclosed at an appropriate time. For the present, it will be too premature to give any names.
Jemina (Wed Apr 12 19100 6:29 IST)
Cronje said that he only took 10-15000 USD and did not fix the match, just gave some forecasts......is that true?
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:10 IST)
Jemina: As per our investigation, the match was fixed after exchange of certain amounts of money. The case is still under investigation and it will take some time to exactly specify the amount of money that have actually exchanged hands. The match was fixed that is why we have registered a case of cheating and criminal conspiracy after collecting sufficient evidence, and after a lot of scientific investigation over a period of time.
Shatranj (Wed Apr 12 19100 6:49 IST)
Mr Brar what were the big breaks in this investigation? Do you plan on extraditing Cronje to try him?
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:13 IST)
Shatranj: the big break was when we learnt about the criminal conspiracy between the then South African team captain Hansie Cronje and Indian businessmen regarding the fixing of cricket matches and influencing the results. For the time being, we have sought assistance from Interpol for the investigation of the case. Regarding extraditing Cronje, a decision will be taken later on during the course of investigation.
Karla (Wed Apr 12 19100 7:5 IST)
Are Indian players involved in this scam? Do you have any names? Just yes or no will do. Secondly will u also be revealing those names later if you have them?
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:15 IST)
Kalra: We have no evidence as yet against Indian players. If we get credible evidence against anyone, whoseover commits an act which happens to be a crime, we shall definitely reveal his or her name.
Prakash (Wed Apr 12 19100 7:8 IST)
What exactly is Kishen Kumr's involvement in this deal? Rajesh Kalra seems to have been singing like a canary.....what all has he disclosed?
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:18 IST)
Parkash: Kishen Kumar's name came up during investigation. We have not been able to question him at length because he is in hospital. During the course of investigation, when we question him, and find anything concrete against him, we will definitely make it public. Rajesh Kalra is with the Delhi police for custodial interrogation till tomorrow, April 13. He has provided us several pieces of information, but we cannot disclose the scene at this stage of investigation.
Mamta (Wed Apr 12 19100 7:10 IST)
Are Manoj Prabhakars allegations right or is he just a big mouth?
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:19 IST)
Mamta: Re Manoj Prabhakar's allegations, as a police officer, I shall not make any comments.
Dukhi (Wed Apr 12 19100 7:10 IST)
Can u briefly explain the scale of corruption in this match fixing scam? Are players from every team in the world involved?
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:23 IST)
Dukhi: The investigation of this case in itself shows that the level of corruption and the money involved is too much. That is why even players of the calibre of Hansie Cronje fell prey to the lure of such amounts of money. I really don't think every team is involved in such scams.
Tarun (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:4 IST)
Why do you think Cronje cracked? Did you send the SA government some incriminating material agianst him that Cronje finally spoke out about his guilt?
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:30 IST)
Tarun: There are two reasons, I think. One, there is a lot of hard evidence which could not have been contradicted. Second, he being a sportsman with conscience, he must have realised his mistake and accepted the guilt.
Kulwant (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:15 IST)
Sat Sri Akal, Paaji. Congratulations to your force for having done something that until recently no one believed could be done. But I still wonder about one little detail. WHY did the Delhi police investigate this matter at all? Did someone file a complaint about it? Because normally the police will not begin an investigation unless a complaint is lodged, isn't it?
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:32 IST)
Kulwant: The anti-extortion cell of Crime Branch, Delhi police, was investigating certain matters when we got information about match fixing. There after, we started investigating the matter, and the result is there to see for everyone.
M Taylor (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:29 IST)
Match-fixing has been on in India since so many years, how come Indian cops have not managed to tap any of the Indian bookies phones and caught some on.
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:34 IST)
M Taylor: As a policy, we do not tap the phones of players or other citizens. We tap phones with due permission from the government only when we get some concrete information that a particular telephone is being used for the commission of crimes.
Nisha (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:19 IST)
Cronje has said that the other three players name by the INDIAN police are innocent..... what do you plan to do about it?
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:37 IST)
Nisha: The case is still being under investigation and at an early stage. Therefore, it will not be appropriate on my part to say anything more.
Jaani (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:18 IST)
Namaste ji. Under what sections of the law have the cricketers and the bookies been booked? Is it a crime to fix matches? As far as I know, there is no law against it. Betting is banned, but match-fixing isn't.
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:39 IST)
Jaani: Match fixing is cheating and it is a criminal conspiracy to cheat the public who buy tickets and go to see genuine matches.
Dilip (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:23 IST)
Sir, congratulations for having cracked a difficult, almost impossible case. But my feeling is that the investigation will not go far. Already, the South Africans have launched their cover-up operation, claiming that Cronje took only 15000 dollars to give weather reports. Can you guys really nail him and the others involved? How will you get hold of Sanjeev Chawla?
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:45 IST)
Dilip: I don't think that South Africa is doing any cover up operation. South Africa and India are friendly countries and we hope to get all the cooperation from them through official channels like Interpol, etc. We have already done a lot of investigation and collected evidence including scientific evidence and during the course of investigation, we are likely to collect more evidence. We will seek the help of Interpol and other appropriate official agencies to apprehend him.
Scandalous (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:45 IST)
Is there any way we can curb such match fixing practises happening again in the future?
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:48 IST)
Scandalous: First, this case will act as a deterrent. Second, as the people become aware that these practises are illegal, their pressure will curb such practises.
Uma (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:35 IST)
Is there pressure on the crime branch to stifle information of any kind because of the high profile names involved?
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:51 IST)
Uma: There is no pressure at all on the crime branch from any quarter. Not at all.
Sangram Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:50 IST)
ABBU why was Hansie allowed to leave india inspite of there being enough evidence as apparent from the press release given by delhi police.
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:55 IST)
Sangram Brar: The investigation at that stage (when Hansie Cronje left India) was still not mature enough to question Hansie Cronje. It being a very methodical and scientific investigation, we took time to complete it before actually questioning the people concerned.
Mr B S Brar (Wed Apr 12 19100 8:58 IST)
Thank you all for asking questions. I shall come back at an appropriate time to take further questions. Good night!
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