Batohi meets CBI officials, requests Delhi police to authenticate tapes

Shamila Batohi at a press conference, New Delhi

With legal hurdles coming in the way of obtaining the tapes, the chief prosecutor of the King Commission Shamila Batohi on Wednesday requested the Delhi police to authenticate the tapes. The transcripts contain conversations of former South African captain Hansie Cronje with an alleged bookie.

Talking to reporters in the capital, Batohi said "the tapes are in the custody of the court and it could be obtained only after completing certain legal formalities. But as of now, I have asked the Delhi police to authenticate the transcript of the taped conversation."

Batohi also had a sitting with India's premier investigative agency which is probing the match-fixing charges in India. She had a two hour long meeting with CBI director RK Raghavan and joint director RN Sawani. Talking to reporters later, Batohi said "today's meeting was satisfactory and there was mutual exchange of information."

Batohi said that though they had not been given access to the tapes, transcripts have been provided. "We have received the transcripts of the tapes from the Delhi Police. However, we will make a formal request for handing over the original tapes," said the chief prosecutor.

Batohi said she has asked the agency for information regarding the involvement of Indian players and opined that ``a life ban on players involved in match-fixing would be a befitting punishment." She also said that she did discuss with the CBI about Mukesh Gupta who was introduced to Hansie Cronje by former Indian captain Mohd. Azharuddin. Referring to reports that she might visit Pakistan to hold discussions with the Justice Qayyum Commission, Batohi made it clear that she had no such plans.

A CBI spokesman said whatever information the agency needed from the South African team had been obtained. However, he refused to reveal the contents of the information.