ED delves into Sunny's locker, questions him

ED delves into Sunny's locker, questions him
Pranati Mehra

Mumbai, Feb 15: Maybe Mohammad Azharuddin (will) sleep/slept a trifle soundly on Thursday night. His belated sniping at the agencies investigating the match fixing scandal may have been unwarranted. For, the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday finally questioned former skipper Sunil Gavaskar on the foreign currency found in his locker in the Bombay Gymkhana Club in September 1999.

ENS learns that the ED was conducting an inquiry into the locker affair since this paper broke the story in May 2000, as foreign currency was involved. A copy of the contract Gavaskar had signed with ESPN was also found in the locker.

Sources reveal Gavaskar was questioned for by ED officers for three hours today. The agency had already sought details from him on the source of the forex. ED officials however, remained tightlipped.

Sources in Nairobi however, indicate that Gavaskar was appointed as a consultant by the Kenya Cricket Association for the LG Cup four-nation tournament held in Nairobi in Sept-OCt 1999. The discovery of the forex including travellers cheques in his locker number 257, is about the same time (Sept 25, 1999). A construction company, the Intex Group, was part sponsor for the tournament, sources in Kenya reveal.

Gavaskar, despite repeated attempts to contact him today, was not available.

The locker was broken open after Gavaskar failed to respond to a general notice from the Gymkhana Club to members to hand over keys if the lockers were not in use. Gavaskar was out of town at the time, and no one in the club seemed to know the locker belonged to him. It was the ESPN contract which revealed the identity of the locker's user.

For some curious reason, the then deputy secretary of the Club, Lt Col Bisht at that time had the staff make two separate lists - one of the forex and one of the Indian currency, and when the story broke, the Club had to reply to the Income Tax department on the basis of memory, since the original lists were not available! Finally, two lists were made available.

The locker contained Indian and foreign currency totally valued at nearly Rs seven lakh. Unsigned TCs worth 680 pounds and signed TCs worth 1240 Euros and 6500 pounds were included.

Gavaskar had, in May 2000, told this paper that he had kept the money in the locker since he was in between tours and his house was under major renovation. He had found it more convenient to put it in the Club locker since he went there every day, and had very little time on hand.