CBI cool about Prabhakar's secret tape
Onkar Singh
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday denied it is contemplating action against Manoj Prabhakar for secretly recording his interrogation with the investigating agency during the match-fixing probe.
Former CBI joint director and BCCI vigilance commissioner K Madhavan had told board officials
that Prabhakar had submitted a copy of the tape to him but it was of little use to him.
"We are not registering any case against Prabhakar
for sneaking into the CBI office with a secret camera. We
know that when he came into our office for the third
time he had a suitcase with him. We have nothing
against him even if he taped the conversation.
"Probably he was tapping his own answers. We would
welcome him to release the tape to the people so that
the truth is known to everyone," CBI joint director R N Savani told rediff.com.
Prabhakar stalled attempts to talk to him by
refusing to take phone calls. His wife pleaded
ignorance about his whereabouts. "I
don't know where he is," she said.
Meanwhile, the BCCI's decision to defer its
announcement of the punishment to be handed down to the
tainted players named in the CBI report on match-fixing has raised eyebrows in cricket circles. Senior cricketers feel the board is planning to tone down the quantum of punishment, keeping the players' contribution to Indian cricket in mind.
Sources in the sports ministry confirmed that pressure on the government is
mounting from certain individuals, who want to bail out
Ajay Jadeja. A recent meeting of Sports Minister Ms Uma Bharti and Defence Minister George Fernandes is
being seen as a last-ditch attempt to save Jadeja.
Though there is no official confirmation about the
meeting from either Ms Bharti or Fernandes himself,
cricket officials are talking about one such
meeting. They also allege that another
politician is lobbying hard for Jadeja.
Jadeja has consistently denied his involvement in
match-fixing. "I may have known people who were
bookies but I have never been involved in any match-fixing," Jadeja told the newsmen at a press conference
last month, soon after the CBI presented its report to
the government.
Ms Jaya Jaitley, president of the Samata party, took up
cudgels on behalf of Jadeja soon after income tax
officials carried out countrywide raids against
cricketers and BCCI officials, by holding a press
conference at the defence minister's
official residence.
Certain Members of Parliament are demanding strong action against the tainted players and officials in the match-fixing scandal. Some of them want to know how the CBI report was made public.
Former Union Minister of Sports Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa
had made the report public as he felt Indian citizens have a right to know what is going on in the
game.
Mail Cricket Editor