CBI report to be handed over to Dhindsa tomorrow

The long-awaited and much hyped interim report on match-fixing by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will, in all likelihood, be handed over on Monday to the Union Sports Minister SS Dhindsa, according to agency sources in New Delhi on Saturday.

Press Trust of India, quoting agency sources, said that the CBI director RK Raghavan gave his nod before leaving for Athens to attend an Interpol meeting. The sources said at least five Indian players have been named in the 150-page report against whom the agency have gathered some circumstantial evidence about their involvement in match-fixing.

The report, which has been deferred thrice, is likely to name, in addition to the players, some officials and bookies. It is also expected to name a few foreign players based on the testimonies of bookies who have been interrogated. Other observations made in the report have confirmed to the manner in which some games were fixed including last minute changes in the final eleven at the instance of bookies. The CBI has also had some bookies on record saying that some of the cricketers had been paid money in foreign currencies and their travel expenses abroad were met by them, the agency sources have claimed.

India's premier agency, which was asked by the government to investigate the 'Hansiegate' scandal on May 2, has completed its initial investigation in less than six months. The sleuths of the Special Crime Branch have also traced calls made to and from cellular telephones used by the players, allegedly to contact bookies.

The agency was earlier scheduled to submit the report in the first week of this month. Later the official release of the report was put off to October 25. But the leak of the report in the media was responsible for a further delay in the submission of the report. The report would be an interim one as the investigating agency plans to continue with its probe in certain cases, according to the sources. Dhindsa has said that he would go through the report after it was handed over to him and then it will be made public during the winter session of Parliament.

The leak of the interim report on match-fixing by the CBI had created a furore. In an interview to Aaj Tak last week, Dhindsa said he would request the Home Ministry to inquire into how the contents of the report reached the media. Later, talking to the press, the Sports Minister said that he was surprised when he saw the names of Mohammed Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Manoj Prabhakar and Ajay Sharma were mentioned in the media reports. "Naturally I was taken aback when I read the reports. I was not happy about the way the report was leaked to some favourite journalists by the CBI", he said.

Meanwhile, in South Africa, the King Commission has said that the public hearing into the scandal has been postponed to early next year. Judge Edwin King, talking to a news agency, said in Cape Town on Saturday "I would not expect us to restart until January.'' He added "We are waiting for the Indian enquiry. Any leaks might be interesting to us."

The other reason cited by the judge was that the state prosecutor Shamila Batohi had started another job and hence the delay. King said "We have to slot in our schedule with her timetable and that of Cronje's legal team. Then there is Christmas, so resumption this year is definitely out." The public hearings which were closed in June, were expected to resume in September and conclude in October.