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We have been vindicated, says police chief

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

Delhi Police Commissioner Ajai Raj Sharma today announced that the stand taken by his men had been vindicated by the admission of sacked South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje that he had not been honest.

"I am sorry for Hansie. Being a cricketer myself, I am fond of him and I am sorry that he had to go like this. He was a batsman of international class. But we had no axe to grind. We merely investigated a case in which, unfortunately, he was a party to matchfixing," said the commissioner as he accepted congratulations from the large assembly of reporters.

He admitted that the Delhi police had taken a long time to register the case as they did not want to take a chance with foreign nationals being involved. "We took our time to decide about filing a first information report. The process was slow because a whole lot of clearances had to be taken," he said.

Sharma said he did not know what made Cronje change his mind as only yesterday he had denied any involvement in the scandal. "Besides the tapes we had sufficient evidence to prove what we were telling the media," he added.

He said he was satisfied with the way the investigations had been conducted by the Crime Branch of the Delhi police. "Once we had the necessary leads, we decided to go ahead with utmost care. [Rajesh] Kalra gave us some names and some clues that also helped."

Should Indian cricketers take this as a sort of warning to keep away from betting? "So far the names of Indian cricketers have not figured anywhere in the investigations, but if they come up we will certainly look into that. Indian cricketers should definitely take it as a warning signal and desist from playing such games with the game," he said.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Dr K K Paul said the investigation would continue despite Cronje's confession. "We will take the investigation to its logical conclusion. Our aim was certainly not to get Hansie. Our aim is to fix the match-fixers," Paul said.

Talking about actor-cum-businessman Kishen Kumar, who is still in Kailash Hospital, Paul said the police are in no hurry and will wait till he recovers. "He is bound to get well sooner or later. We will give him time to recover. We will get him and know what he has to say," Paul said.

The Delhi police headquarters became the focus of reporters soon after news agencies flashed the news of Cronje's admission. Top police officers, who were unavailable till afternoon, suddenly began pouring back into the headquarters with broad smiles. They knew that it was celebration time. The only officer missing was Deputy Commissioner (crime branch) P K Srivastav who had toiled hard with Assistant Commissioner of Police Rishipal Singh and inspectors Ishwar Singh and Surinder Kumar.

Both Commissioner Sharma and Joint Commissioner Paul were unwilling to talk about the tapes because they are now the property of the court. Nor would they give out details of the raids conducted by the Crime Branch and the Enforcement Directorate yesterday at the residence and office of prime accused Sanjeev Chawla in NOIDA and Delhi.

They were also unwilling to spell out the names of the persons named by Kalra. "I will not be able to identify the South African who spoke to both Hansie and Sanjeev from the Cochin hotel," said Paul. But he agreed to release Chawla's pictures to the media by tomorrow.

Kalra, who spilled the beans, was, however, unaware of the developments in the international cricket circuit in the last two days. "He used to think he was the one who scripted the matches. Let him learn now that he does not. He is somewhere in a cell in the sector 8/9 police station without a television. He will be shocked when policemen break the news to him that Hansie Cronje has admitted to fixing matches," laughed a policeman.

Kalra is to be produced in court again on April 13 when his remand comes to an end. But he faces the prospect of being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate once the police release him.

The Betting Scandal: The full story

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