CBI to launch `massive operation' against underworld soon

The CBI is planning a "massive operation" to nab certain underworld operators found involved in betting and match-fixing scandal as the agency's investigation has showed a nexus between them and cricket players.

"We will be soon sending teams to various parts of the country to make detailed investigations into the involvement of underworld mafia, who have been showing more than an 'academic' interest in the game," highly-placed sources in the agency told PTI here.

"Initially, we were making efforts to complete the probe into the whole gamut of match-fixing, but now after a report has already been submitted to the government, sleuths would start working on this area, which needs a thorough investigation," the sources said.

Highlighting the involvement of underworld mafia in the international match-fixing and betting racket in cricket, the CBI report has warned that the mafia might take overall control of this sport.

The signs of underworld mafia's involvement were evident from the testimonies of former Indian skipper Mohammed Azharuddin and the team's former physiotherapist Ali Irani in which the names of mafia dons Anees Ibrahim, Abu Salem and Sharad Shetty found mention.

The sources said certain leads had opened up during the enquiry and the agency would be making a detailed probe into this aspect.

The sources said CBI was not yet finished with the murky dealings and would probe into this nexus and its ramifications on the national security as mafia operated both within and from outside the country.

Apart from ramifications for the national security, CBI was looking at the nexus between underworld and cricketers from the perspective of money laundering, the sources said.

The CBI Director RK Raghavan recently attended an international conference on money laundering at Vancouver and has opined that there was no limit to the ingenuinity of the underworld in laundering money in the game of cricket. The CBI would cast its net wide to get to the bottom of the nexus between underworld, the cricketers and the game's administrators, the sources said.

They said the underworld had shown more than academic interest in the game and they had found that the game could be manipulated "as per their requirement".