Sawani, Ishwar Singh get President's medals

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

While Mohammad Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar are still crying foul and blaming the Central Bureau of Investigation for an 'improper investigation' into the match-fixing scandal, R N Sawani, the man at the helm of the probe, has been honoured for meritorious service with a President's police medal.

An Indian Police Service officer of the 1977 Tamil Nadu cadre batch, the soft-spoken Sawani has been with the CBI for a little over a year. Besides the match-fixing probe, he is leading investigations into a number of other cases, including that of the forgery of documents of Chief Justice A S Anand and the IC-814 hijacking case.

Ishwar Singh, who exposed the nexus between bookies and cricketers by naming South Africa captain Hansie Cronje as the main player in the match-fixing episode, has also been named for the President's police medal.

Ishwar belongs to the anti-extortionist cell of the Crime Branch of the Delhi police. According to senior police officials, his name was recommended for the award as it was due to his hard work and dedication that the Delhi police was able to nail Cronje and make him admit that he had indulged in match-fixing and received money from alleged bookmaker Sanjiv Chawla.

In all, 18 CBI officers of various ranks have been rewarded. Four have been given the President's police medals.

The match-fixing scandal - The complete story

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