NEW DELHI, April 11: Delhi Police Thursday claimed to have arrested two persons allegedly involved in betting on cricket matches currently being held in Sharjah (UAE).
Crime Branch of Delhi Police, which was instrumental in exposing the unholy practice of betting and match-fixing two years ago, said two persons, Naveen Shah and Kailash Aggarwal were arrested from Karol Bagh area of West Delhi late Tuesday night when they were betting on the New Zealand-Sri Lanka match being played at Sharjah.
The duo were being subjected to intense interrogation by Crime Branch sleuths to ascertain the exact ramifications of their betting syndicate, Police sources said.
Police said it had seized Rs four lakh, three mobile phones, two MTNL phones, one colour TV and one laptop from the two arrested persons which were allegedly used for betting purposes.
On April 7, 2000, the Crime Branch, investigating a kidnapping case, stumbled upon a conversation between disgraced South African captain Hansie Cronje and NRI Sanjeev Chawla which led to the opening of pandora’s box of betting on cricket matches.
Delhi Police was still waiting for the Letters Rogatory sent to South Africa for voice sample and bank account details.
The latest arrests have once again shown bettting on cricket matches still goes on despite several checks by police agencies.—PPI
BEIJING: Beijing police have arrested a referee accused of taking some $120,000 in bribes to fix matches in the scandal-ridden Chinese league, state media said on Thursday.
The charges against referee Gong Jiangping are the first to hit the embattled Chinese Football Association (CFA) since the nation’s top prosecuting body last month ordered an end to the CFA’s protective umbrella over league activities.
The official China Daily said the public security bureau of Beijing’s Xuanwu District had detained Gong for 22 days and he would be prosecuted for accepting bribes as a member of a corporation’s staff.
Gong allegedly pocketed around 1 million yuan ($120,800) in bribes over several years, the newspaper said. Both the CFA and the Xuanwu prosecutor’s office declined to comment, the paper said.
Five second division teams were involved in a huge match-fixing scandal during the last week of the season in early October 2001.
Chinese soccer’s “darkest days”, as some state media referred to the incidents, came just days ahead of China clinching its first berth in the World Cup finals.
Analysts believed Gong’s case was being used to set an example for other corrupt referees.
HANOI: Vietnamese police detained another 23 people in Ho Chi Minh City earlier this week for illegal betting on a European soccer match.
The Ho Chi Minh city police newspaper said the group was detained at a coffee shop on Tuesday while betting on the result of the Champions League fixture between Barcelona and Panathinaikos.
It said police seized 325 million dong ($21,380) in cash and records showing evidence of gambling on overseas matches, including those involving English and Italian clubs.—Reuters