FIR against Azhar, Jadeja

Kinner Acharya,  in Rajkot

Sanjay Vyas, a Rajkot-based advocate, has filed a First Information Report against Indian cricketers Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja, alleging they fixed cricket matches.

Rajkot Police Commissioner Sudhir Sinha registered his complaint on Tuesday evening.

According to the FIR, Azhar had fixed three matches. One of them was India's match against South Africa in Rajkot. Vyas says Azhar has admitted that Jadeja and he fixed the 29th October, 1996 match, which was played at the Municipal Corporation ground.

Vyas has alleged in his complaint that Azhar's and Jadeja's acts are a case of betrayal of the nation and cheating, which deserves to be severely punished.

Interestingly, Vyas has attached Police Commissioner Sudhir Sinha's public statement to the FIR.

In a statement, Sinha had said, "Cricketers can be prosecuted in a match-fixing case and legal action can be taken against those responsible."

According to Vyas's advocate Lalit Singh, "The cricketers fooled the people who went to see the match. The people bought costly tickets to watch a match, the result of which was pre-determined. We have asked to prosecute the cricketers under Section 420, 114, 120-b and 124-a of the Indian Penal Code.

Sanjay Vyas told rediff.com: "It's a shocking event. Twenty thousand people were fooled in one go and many more that watched the same on television. This is simply unbearable. The cricketers must be punished."

Sinha told news persons: "We will ask for a copy of match-fixing reports from the CBI and BCCI, and on the basis of that we will collect the evidence; if needed we will arrest the accused.

Mail Cricket Editor