It may be a disappointing visit for Batohi

"Now, I return to this young fellow. And the communication I have got to make is, that he has great expectations," wrote Charles Dickens in `Great Expectations'. Similarly, when the King Commission chief prosecutor planned her visit, the expectations were high not only for her, but also the South Africans. However, looking at the events over the last two days, Shamila Batohi must have been disappointed at the outcome of her talks concerning the Hansie Cronje tapes with Indian police officials.

AFP sources quoted an Indian official as saying on Wednesday "South Africa's chief prosecutor Shamila Batohi is likely to return home without the vital tapes linking former Proteas skipper Hansie Cronje to cricket's biggest match-fixing scandal." When asked about the request made by Batohi to hand over the tapes, Delhi police commissioner Ajai Raj Sharma said "probably they will have to come back for it (Cronje tapes)." Sharma added "the South African authorities will have to appeal to the Indian judiciary for copies of the tapes, which have been sealed by Delhi Police crime branch detectives as 'court property.'

Sharma said "with Batohi and her deputy Jeff Edwards scheduled to return home on Friday, it would not be possible for the pair to clear the legal procedures in just two days." This sums up the complex nature of the case and the legal hurdles that prevented him from handing over the incriminating tapes.

DCP KK Paul dismissed the King Commission's interim report saying the report was not relevant to the Indian police. Paul said "What is relevant is the investigation. We can make use of the information gathered by the Commission to our advantage. He however added "the report may not be admissible as evidence in court. You have to keep in mind that it (King Commission) is not a regular court but a commission of enquiry. Its status is different."

AFP sources quoted an official as saying that "Batohi had come armed with copies of the report but during her talks, the police here informed her that the crime branch had already downloaded it from the Internet. In short, she had nothing in hand while bargaining with us."

Batohi during her talks with officials had said that "samples of Cronje's voice would be sent to the Delhi Police once a court in South Africa granted permission." She was expected to meet the CBI on Wednesday evening, when she is expected to discuss the matters related to the agency's probe on match-fixing in India.

With nothing in hand to bargain, Batohi is expected to go back to South Africa empty handed. The King Commission, which is expected to resume its sitting on October 2, had some hopes of obtaining some vital evidence during her visit. As Charles Dickens put it aptly in `Tale of Two Cities' - "A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing, and leaves the sleeper where he lays down, but I wish you to know that you inspired it." Batohi may well recall this quote after her visit to India.