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Journalist threatened

A sports journalist of Loksatta, Baroda's first vernacular daily, says he received a threatening call in connection with ongoing match-fixing episode.

Uday Munshi on Friday said that after his article on match-fixing in cricket was published in the India Today issue of June 12, an anonymous call was received at his residence the same day at 1430 hrs IST. However, since he was conducting a lecture at a coaching class at the time, he said the call was taken by his mother.

Munshi said the caller asked his mother, ''Yah Uday Munshi kaa ghar hai na (is this Unday Munshi's residence?" To which she replied, 'Yes.' The caller then told her, "Ushe kaho, ish mamleme aage badne ki koshish mat karna, nahi to achha nahi hoga" (tell him not to take this matter further, otherwise it won't be nice for him), and hung up.

Munshi said he is unfazed by the call. ''Being a journalist I am not not scared, it is my duty to bring out the facts." He added that should the Central Bureau of Investigation call him for his statement in the match-fixing case, he is ready to reveal other facts before them.

His mother believes that by the tone of the call it seemed as if it was from a long distance.

Munshi revealed that on May 6, 2000, Manoj Prabhakar landed in Baroda and rushed to Kiran More's residence. Later, More contacted Nayan Mongia and asked him to accompany Manoj Prabhakar to BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele's residence.

Further, he said that on the same day, at 1505 hours, Prabhakar and Mongia arrived at Lele's residence. He admitted that he was present during a conversation that made references to someone that seemed like Kapil, though the name of the former India captain was not mentioned. He said at around 1620 hours, Prabhakar asked Lele to move to another room, where the two had a closed door chat for about 25 minutes. He added, Prabhakar was carrying a bag, and held on to it during the closed door meeting with Lele