Delhi Police Chargesheet Show Mumbai Test, Cochin ODI In 2000 Against South Africa Were Fixed

The Delhi Police, investigating key bookie Sanjeev Chawla for the 2000 match-fixing scandal involving South Africa captain Hansie Cronje, has made startling revelation in the latest chargesheet. Chawla was recently granted bail by a special judge after a probe of 76 days. The Delhi Court directed him to give his voice sample and handwriting specimen to the investigating officer in the case, according to a report in PTI.

In absence of High Court’s stay order, Chawla was granted bail. The Delhi Police approached  the Supreme Court on May 13, challenging the High Court order. The apex court is likely to take up the matter next month, the Indian Express reported.

The chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police details the alleged role played by Chawla and a few others who have granted bail during the tour of South Africa in 2000.

Delhi Police: 1st Test Match at Mumbai and 1st One-Day International at Cochin were fixed

In the latest chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police it has been mentioned that the first Test in Mumbai, which India won by three wickets, and the first ODI in Cochin were fixed.

The report says, “…some of the matches were fixed and in some matches an attempt was made to fix them”.

Details on fixing the 1st Test in Mumbai:

“It was decided that South African team will not score more than 250 runs in an innings. Though the South African team won the Test in three days, this was attributed to a very poor performance by India. The Indian team had batted first and scored 225 and the South African team scored only 176. In the 2nd innings, India scored a mere 113 and the South African team won the match by scoring 164 runs only. Thus, the South African team did not score more than 250 runs in both the innings, as committed by accused Hansie Cronje to the fixers. Thus, this match was a fixed one.”

Details on fixing the 1st ODI in Cochin:

“Constant calls made to Hamid Cassim by Sanjeev Chawla and Hansie Cronje on the night intervening 8/9.03.2000 further corroborate the statement of Hansie Cronje made before King Commission that he was being regularly pressurised to underperform as per their bidding.”

Hansie: “No, no … They were saying that they were already doing Cochin, the other guys are already angry with me because I have not received their money…”

Sanjeev: “I can deposit the money in your account, it is not a problem … Tomorrow itself I can deposit the money.”

The chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police also mentioned that though the 2nd, 3rd and 4th ODI were not fixed Hansie Cronje helped in giving inside information to the accused and helped them gain huge profits through placing bets.