Rape accused weds victim under police protection

By S Ahmed Ali/TNN

May 5,2005.
Mumbai: This could be a scene straight out of a skewed Bollywood flick—the accused in a rape case ends up marrying the victim.
    On Monday, sessions court judge V C Singh acquitted Firoz Muneer Shaikh, the 25-year-old accused in a 2003 rape case. Says public prosecutor Hitendra Dedia, “The trial started last week and the victim was deposing. During her cross-examination on Saturday by the defence lawyer she said that since the accused had refused to marry her she had lodged the complaint of rape with the police. She also said that he had had a love affair with her and she wanted to marry him.’’ At this point the court asked her whether she still loved him. She said “Yes’’. The judge then posed the same question to the accused. He too replied in the affirmative.
    The judge asked both whether they were willing to marry each other. Both said yes. At the time of the alleged rape she was 17 years old, legally a minor.
    Under the law, even when a minor gives her consent for sexual intercourse, it amounts to rape and the offence is punishable by up to ten years rigorous imprisonment. Shaikh was arrested on November 1, 2003, when the complaint was lodged. He has since been in police custody.
    Friends and family members of both were also consulted, and gave their consent. After their marriage, the judge passed an order of acquittal.
    The judge even ordered that police escorts be provided for the marriage ceremony to ensure that the accused did not run away. The wedding took place at Mohammed Ali Road on Monday.
    The case dates back to August 2003 when Shabnam, a native of Aurangabad, had come to stay with her elder sister, Shamshaad (name changed), at her residence at Kajupada at Chakala in Andheri. It was here that Shaikh, who was a factory employee, got to know her.
    After gaining her confidence by telling her he would marry her, he had intercourse with her. Shaikh also offered her Rs 700. But later, when he refused to make good his promise, she lodged a complaint—after twoand-a-half months, on November 1, 2003—with the Andheri police.
    According to the police, this is Shabnam’s second rape case. An earlier case pertains to her gang-rape by four men in Andheri in 2002 and is still to be committed to the sessions court.

police looking for pakistani umpire in 2013 ipl betting racket.

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The police may also write to the Pakistan High Commission to make Pakistan umpire Asad Rauf available for questioning

Meiyappan, Vindu get bail

Delhi Cops Slap MCOCA On 23 Arrested Persons

S Ahmed Ali TNN

Mumbai: The Delhi police, on Tuesday, slapped sections of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) on the 23 people arrested in the IPL betting scandal. The key accused in the Mumbai crime branch’s own probe into the case — Chennai Super Kings’ principal Gurunath Meiyappan and actor Vindu Dara Singh — walked out on bail with stringent conditions.
    The 19th Metropolitan court here granted bail to eight accused arrested by the crime branch, including bookies Ramesh Vyas, Ashok Vyas, Pandurang Kadam, Neeraj Shah, Alpesh Patel and Prem Taneja, on bonds of Rs 25,000 each.
    It also set stringent conditions for the bail, ordering the accused to report to the crime branch office every alternate day, not to leave the country without permission and not to hamper the investigations.
    Meiyappan’s lawyer Aabad Ponda argued before the court that his client was not involved in match-fixing or spot-fixing and should be granted bail as the police had already exhausted the custody period. “The one case is that of placing bets with Vindu. Placing bets is a bailable offence,” Ponda said. He pointed out that the sections levelled against Meiyappan were bailable, and since his client had not forged documents, the non-bailable IPC sections 466 and 468 were not applicable. Ponda quoted a Supreme Court judgment to contend that in a case that cannot fetch life imprisonment, the accused should be granted bail. “Meiyappan responded to the summons issued to him by the police. There is no question of him absconding. Tapping of (his) phones and all other evidence has been taken by the police even prior to Meiyappan’s arrest,” Ponda said.
    Meiyappan, Vindu and the other accused walked out of Arthur Road jail late evening after completing the formalities. While Vindu headed straight to his Juhu home, Meiyappan went to a city hotel and was expected to fly to his Chennai home after some rest.
    Both have to report to the crime branch office on Thursday. Meiyappan’s lawyers are expected to move an application before the court next week asking for their client to be allowed to appear once a week before the police. Meiyappan was arrested on the night of May 24 by the Mumbai crime branch after he was summoned for questioning.
    One of the bookies granted bail on Tuesday faces arrest by the Delhi police. The Delhi police brought a production warrant for Ramesh Vyas, who is a key accused in their investigations as he allegedly had illegally provided conference call facilities between Delhi bookies and Pakistan bookies.
    Vyas may be arrested on Wednesday by the Delhi police.
    Earlier in the day, the Delhi police invoked MCOCA on the accused in its investigations, saying they had facilitated the illegal acts of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his aide Chhota Shakeel. But Mumbai crime branch additional commissioner of police Niket Kaushik ruled out applying MCOCA on the accused arrested by the city police. “As of now, we have not come across any evidence in our case to apply the act of MCOCA,’’ a Mumbai police officer said.
Victor link: More trouble for Guru Chennai: BCCI president N Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan may have got out on bail in Mumbai, but more trouble awaits him in Chennai, as Tamil Nadu CB-CID officers prepare to question hotelier Vikram Agrawal alias Victor, who they hope will corroborate evidence linking him with Meiyappan. The Chennai sleuths are armed with call records that show the two exchanged calls more than 80 times during the IPL-6 season. So far, investigations have revealed a network of bookies and punters headed by Uttamlal Jain alias Kitty, who allegedly operated from Victor’s five-star hotel in Egmore. CB-CID officers believe that by establishing Victor’s link with Gurunath through statements and more material evidence, the investigation will go nationwide. TNN

For steps to download Free Alive app, see P 22

‘Bowled badly, yet batsmen failed to score’

Chandila played to script but couldn’t deliver

S Ahmed Ali TNN

Mumbai: Delhi-based bookie Ashwini Aggarwal alias Tinku has told the Mumbai crime branch that he lost Rs 80 lakh betting on IPL matches after his plans, in association with Nagpur bookie Sunil Bhatia and arrested cricketer Ajit Chandila, to fix the off-spinner’s overs in two matches went awry.
    Tinku said he lost the money for a match played on April 17 between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals (RR) and for another one played between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals on April 22. Tinku said he had met Chandila, Ankeet Chavan and Bhatia at Delhi’s Ashoka hotel a few days earlier, where he paid Chandila Rs 20 lakh to fix the overs. The cricketer agreed on the condition that he will start fixing after the first three matches.
    As per the deal, Chandila was to concede 14 runs in an over in the April 17 match. Initially, it was decided that Chandila will signal by waving a white-coloured wrist watch at the audience but Tinku shot it down saying it would be difficult to spot at night.
    Chandila then suggested that he would kiss the Hanuman pendent he was wearing and look upwards. The match was played at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, where Bhatia was also present.
    Tinku told the police that Bhatia instructed him to bet Rs 30 lakh immediately after Chandila gave the signal. Unfortunately, the batsman could only make six runs in the two overs that Chandila bowled. After the match, when Bhatia asked about the fiasco, Chandila shot back that though he did give an opportunity for the batsmen to make runs, they did not utilize it. He asked what could he do if the batsmen failed to score runs even after he bowled loose balls.
    Tinku wanted to make good the losses in the April 22 match played between CSK and RR and again Chandila was to give a similar signal before bowling the ‘fixed’ over. “Tinku was very confident and bet Rs 30 lakh again thinking this time Chandila would do as he was told. But Tinku lost again,” said a police officer on the condition of anonymity.
    Tinku told the police that a group of 12 key bookies, including himself, Sunil Abhichandani, film producer Prakash Chandani, Sobhan Mehta, Chandresh Jain alias Jupiter and Devendra Kothari, had taken Rs 60 lakh from a chit fund to place bets. Each of them used to invest Rs 5 lakh every month and Tinku was the first to take Rs 60 lakh from the fund.
    He also told the police that prior to the IPL, he had gone to Dubai, where he met Sunil Abhichandani and Pakistani bookies Dr Javed and Salman. There were reports that when Tinku met Bhatia in Delhi’s Tihar jail, he allegedly bashed up Bhatia in a fit of rage.
TN cops to question ‘Victor’ tomorrow Chennai: The Tamil Nadu CB-CID will soon pore over hundreds of hours of CCTV footage collected from Hotel Radisson Blu, Chennai, to see who all frequented a special room that the owner, Vikram Agrawal alias Victor, had allegedly converted into a virtual control room for betting operations. Agrawal, who was let off by the Mumbai crime branch after three days of questioning, will appear before the CB-CID on Wednesday. TNN

Delhi bookie Tinku told Mumbai crime branch cops that he lost Rs 80 lakh betting on Chandila conceding 14 runs in his over

Mumbai crime branch set to quiz Ankeet over bookie link

Cops May Make Chennai-Based Hotelier A Witness Against Guru

S Ahmed Ali TNN

Mumbai: The city crime branch probing the IPL betting case is likely to question cricketer Ankeet Chavan over his alleged links to Delhibased bookie Ashwini Aggarwal alias Tinku.
    Sources also said the crime branch may make Chennai-based hotelier Vikram Aggarwal alias Victor, who is currently being questioned, a witness against CSK principal Gurunath Meiyappan.
    Chavan is on interim bail till June 6 for his wedding on Sunday. Sources said he may not be quizzed immediately but his statement will be recorded. “Chavan cannot be arrested as he has already been arrested by the Delhi police,’’ said an officer. The police said they need to probe the financial dealings through hawala channels between the bookies and the arrested players.
    Victor was questioned for the second day by the Mumbai property cell. The questioning lasted five hours and he was allowed to go on the condition that he appears again on Monday. “We have not found anything concrete against Aggarwal who was into betting. We will take a call on Aggarwal on Monday,” said an officer.
    Meanwhile, Tinku was produced before the a Magistrate court on Saturday along with two other bookies, Dinesh Sharma and Kishore Pablani, and remanded to police custody till June 6. Tinku was arrested by the Delhi police. “Tinku is a key accused as he was in touch with absconding bookies Devendra Kothari, Jupiter and Lambu who have links to arrested cricketers Chavan, Ajit Chandila and Sreesanth,” said an officer.
    Tinku used to operate from Gurgaon along with Mumbai-based bookie Devendra Kothari. Kothari is the same bookie who was arrested last year in Mumbai along with his associate Sonu Jalan alias Junior Kolkata for betting. Interestingly, Tinku told police that Nagpur-based bookie Sunil Bhatia alias Nagpur had cheated him of Rs 20 lakh by giving him false information about a CSK and Rajasthan Royals match. Tinku had betted his money believing Nagpur’s words and lost.
    The crime branch had arrested another bookie Paresh Bhatia alias Malad from Goa, along with two others, last Monday for betting on the IPL final match. On Friday the Goa court released Bhatia on bail. “No sooner was my client released, the Mumbai police picked him up. How can one person be arrested twice for one offence?’’ asked his lawyer Rajesh Srivastav.
    Meanwhile, police are looking for Devendra Kothari, Shobhan Mehta alias Kalachowkie and Jupiter who could throw more light on the spot-fixing scam.

ICC official ‘Terry’ had warned Guru about betting, claim Mumbai police

C Unnikrishnan and S Ahmed Ali TNN

Mumbai: Another startling piece of information tumbled out in the IPL spot-fixing scandal on Friday. An ICC official, known as ‘Terry’, had warned CSK team principal Gurunath Meiyappan that the latter was under surveillance for betting, Mumbai police officials said.
    Sources said Terry is either a South African or a British national and part of the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) unit of the international cricket body. “We are trying to establish Terry’s identity before speaking to ICC officials. If required, we will record their statement,” a senior police officer said.
    The ACSU keeps players, team members and umpires under surveillance in order to check malpractices in the game. Police said they are surprised that an ICC official directly got in touch with Gurunath instead of alerting BCCI. The board has denied receiving any alerts from ICC.
    During the interrogation Gurunath told police that Terry had warned him in April to steer clear of bookies after his alleged betting activities came to the notice of ACSU. However, he allegedly continued to place bets and shared the information about the warning with Vindu Dara Singh, police said. But Terry’s name did not figure in the intercepted conversations between Gurunath and Vindu.
    Some television channels said that the transcripts spoke about spot-fixing and the number of runs to be scored in a particular over. But crime branch officials denied this. “Over the phone, Gurunath and Vindu mainly discussed money to be placed as bets. They spoke about placing bets in the range of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh on various teams. There was no talk of either spot-fixing or match-fixing,”’ the official said.
SECRET WARNING? In April, an official named Terry from ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit warns Guru to steer clear of betting
Guru continues betting and
shares warning info with Vindu
Mumbai police surprised that ICC official spoke directly to Guru instead of alerting BCCI
Board denies getting any such input from ICC
Cops say Srinivasan probably unaware of ICC warning to son-in-law Guru’s no. in bookie Vyas’s call log
    Vindu was in regular touch with bookie Ramesh Vyas who facilitated conference calls between India and Pakistan bookies. Police found that Gurunath’s number figured in the call log records. Vyas is under arrest and his bail application will be heard on Saturday. Police said Gurunath’s father-in-law and BCCI president N Srinivasan was probably unaware about the warning. “There is nothing to indicate that he knew about his son-in-law’s activities. At this stage we do not intend to question Srinivasan. The focus of our case is betting where Gurunath is an accused,’’ the official added.
    (With inputs from agencies)

CSK principal Gurunath Meiyappan (C) and Vindu (behind) being produced in court in Mumbai on Friday

Neta, IPS men aiding accused: Lahoria’s son S Ahmed Ali TNN Mumbai:Sandeep alias Sunny Lahoria, son of slain Navi Mumbai builder Sunil Lahoria, has claimed that a senior politician and at least four IPS officers are aiding and abetting the prime accused in his father’s murder case.     A politician is influencing the police to not arrest the prime accused-—builder Suresh Bijlani and architect Anuragh Garg, said Sunny at a press conference on Tuesday. “Four IPS officers have aided them and, in fact I would say, they also had prior knowledge that my father was going to be killed. I have written several letters to the home department,” he said.     Interestingly, this allegation had been one of the reasons why the case was transferred from the Navi Mumbai police to the Mumbai crime branch. Sunny also hit out at the Navi Mumbai police for not arresting Bijlani on May 24 when he had staged a shootout on himself in Kharghar.     “Like earlier, this time too, Bijlani was in Kharghar after the shootout and, from very beginning, the Navi Mumbai police knew that the incident was staged, but they did not arrest him. Now, after the SC has stayed Bijlani’s interim bail of 60 days, he has again gone underground, thanks to the police,” said Sunny, who said he was surprised as to how the Indore high court had granted Bijlani an interim bail, when there is no such provision in murder cases.     “Bijlani is not absconding, he is taking opinions from his legal team and will be available soon,” his lawyer Ramesh Tripathi.