Gulshan Kumar case led cops to match-fixing scam

Gulshan Kumar case led cops to match-fixing scam
JATIN GANDHI

NEW DELHI, APRIL 12: It was investigations into the murder of music magnate Gulshan Kumar that reportedly led the anti-extortion cell of the Delhi Police's crime branch into discovering the match-fixing scandal.

Sources said that Kishan Kumar, the brother of Gulshan Kumar, had received ransom calls on his cellphone long ago and it had been put under surveillance. Unaware of the police surveillance, Kumar is said to have made calls abroad related to match-fixing and transferring money through hawala.

When the police realised that the conversations close to the start of the one-day series, which was played in the country from March 9 to March 19, mentioned "pitches" and "players" they knew it was time to swing into action.

"We realised that some match-fixing was going on," a police officer connected with the investigations said.

The police then went about seeking permission from the government (in this case, the Lieutenant Governor) to tap cellphones of a few Delhi-based businessmen and it was, officials admit, sheer chance that one of the tapped phones included was provided by Chawla to Cronje. "The bookies, apparently under the belief that cellphones are safe for their purposes, use only one phone to talk to the players involved," a source said.

To tap the cellphone alleged to have been provided by Chawla to Cronje, the police "arranged an instrument and put a neutral card (with no number and meant only to receive calls) in it," an official revealed.

The police began tapping the conversations from March 14 (obtaining the permission took time) and the next time Cronje and Chawla spoke to each other, the call was also received on the police phone. An output cord from the phone was attached to a recorder and it became evidence - which even Cronje admitted on Tuesday undisputed.

The phone monitoring and recordings went on till the beginning of the Sharjah tournament, said Joint Commissioner (Crime) K K Paul. Though, by the time the monitoring began, the teams had already played two matches, officials said they were lucky enough to get enough evidence.

"Just because they didn't know they were being monitored, they left enough evidence for us everywhere to make a strong case..and here we are," a police officer said.