Raj Kundra’s business partner says police tortured him

Umesh Goenka alleges statements implicating Kundra had been extracted under duress.

Umesh Goenka,the business partner of Rajasthan Royals part-owner Raj Kundra,Wednesday told a Delhi court that his alleged statements implicating Kundra in the IPL betting scandal had been extracted by the police under duress,and that he would like to retract.

In an affidavit filed before Additional Sessions Judge V K Khanna,Goenka alleged that plainclothes officers from the Delhi Police Special Cell had picked him up illegally from his home in Ahmedabad on June 2 and brought him to Delhi,where he was subsequently tortured in custody and forced to give a false statement before a magistrate.

The Delhi Police had said that in his statement recorded under Section 164 CrPC,Goenka had said that both Raj Kundra and his actor wife Shilpa Shetty were involved in betting. Goenka alleged on Wednesday that the police had confined him illegally in a hotel in Karol Bagh and then at the Special Cell headquarters on Lodhi Road for five days,and given him severe,repeated beatings. When he initially insisted that Kundra was not involved in betting,he was stripped,beaten and slapped across his face so hard that he ruptured his right eardrum,Goenka said.

He also alleged in the affidavit that police had obtained his signature on blank paper,and threatened to implicate him in a case under MCOCA. That under duress,fear and to save himself from further physical torture,I agreed to name Kundra as per the wishes of the police personnel, the application said.

The court,after hearing submissions from Goenkas advocates,directed Delhi Police to file a reply by June 14.

GANGSTER WARS

The police claimed Wednesday that their investigations had revealed some inter-syndicate rivalries between the Dawood Ibrahim-led syndicate and the Chhota Rajan gang over controlling the betting and match-fixing business.

The police sought custody of Ashwani Aggarwal alias Tinku Mandi for another six days to probe his alleged links with the D-company. Tinku,an alleged bookie,was in the custody of Mumbai Police until June 10,and was likely to be produced in court on Thursday.

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According to the police,alleged bookie Ramesh Vyas,who has been remanded in police custody until June 18,had revealed Tinkus role as the link between bookies,fixers and hawala operators in India and the controllers of the syndicate based in Dubai and Pakistan.

Police on Wednesday got custody of alleged bookie Sunil Bhatia for another two days after it submitted that new facts had emerged,and Bhatias sustained interrogation was needed to get to the bottom of the conspiracy. Police told the court that as per material on record,Bhatia was acting as a fixer for Tinku.

Bhatia was found fixing players as well as threatening them for failed or undelivered performances. He was directly in touch with (arrested Rajasthan Royals allrounder) Ajit Chandila and,through him,with others like Siddharth Trivedi, the police said. Trivedi has recorded his statement before the magistrate,and is likely to be made witness in the case.

CHANDILA IS KEY

Hearing on the bail pleas of Chandila,former Ranji cricketer turned alleged bookie Babu Rao Yadav,and alleged bookies Tinku Mandi,Sunil Bhatia and Deepak Kumar was deferred until June 14.

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Police told the court in the course of arguments that Chandila had emerged as the key conspirator acting on behalf of the syndicate. He was directly in conversation with several fixers and players,and had received money and gifts from them on numerous occasions, the police said,adding that further police remand of Chandila may be required once the joint examination of Vyas and Tinku is over.