Muthiah calls Bindra's statement `politicking'

There is a proper forum to express one's views and if one ignores this forum and speaks in controversial terms in the open or to the media, then he makes himself open to criticism. This is the stand Board of Control for Cricket in India president AC Muthiah has taken in dealing with IS Bindra's latest outburst against the functioning of the board.

Reacting to the former BCCI president's statement at a press conference in Mohali on Sunday that it was "wrong on the part of the Board to gun for coach Kapil Dev" while also holding it responsible for the controversies surrounding the game, Muthiah told a news agency in Chennai on Tuesday that he was "really amazed" at Bindra's utterances.

According to Muthiah, Bindra was present at the board's working committee meeting in Bangalore ten days ago. He could have used this forum to voice any criticism of the board and the issue of Kapil's continuance as the national team's coach.

"Bindra could have made these remarks at the Bangalore meeting," Muthiah said. "In fact it was Bindra who had vehemently said in his earlier statements that Kapil Dev had offered money to Manoj Prabhakar and everyone knows these statements had kicked off so much dust". Muthiah said Kapil Dev himself had told him how very sore he was with Bindra's statements.

In view of this background, Muthiah seemed convinced that the latest statement of Bindra was "nothing but politicking".

Meanwhile, Income Tax authorities have clarified that they had not conducted any raid at the residence of cricketer Nikhil Chopra in south Delhi on August 25 as reported in sections of the media.

Director General of Income Tax SC Parija had said that the raids at the premises of the players including Nikhil Chopra, who were not present during country-wide search on July 20, would be carried out as soon as they stepped into their house on return from abroad.

IT officials, however, said on Tuesday that Chopra had instead been called to the department and questioned there and that there had been no raid on his house as reported by Press Trust of India.

On a comparatively lighter note, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on a petitioner for filing a frivolous petition accusing Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, his deputy Dhananjay Kumar and Samata Party president Jaya Jaitley for interfering in the Income Tax (IT) Department's investigation against certain cricketers allegedly involved in the match-fixing scandal.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Arijit Passayat and Justice DK Jain while dismissing the petition on the ground that no material was placed before the court to show that IT officials had not acted according to the law, also issued contempt notice to petitioner Namit Verma when he continued the arguments even after the dismissal order.

Verma in a public interest litigation had named Sinha, Kumar, Jaitley as respondents, besides the cabinet secretary, director general (investigation) of Directorate General of Income Tax, director of income tax investigation and the CBI.

Verma alleged that Sinha, Kumar and Jaitley had blatantly interfered in the search operation in the premises of certain cricketers on July 20 by the IT Department officials, who were performing their legal duty.