''More evidence'' against Cronje

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

NEW DELHI, APRIL 10. The Crime Branch of the Delhi police today released more ``damning evidence'' against the South African cricket captain, Hansie Cronje, saying he and the London-based bookie, Sanjiv Chawla, had made separate phone calls to a common contact in South Africa from a hotel at Kochi, Kerala.

A senior Crime Branch official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that both Chawla and Cronje had stayed at Hotel Taj Residency in Kochi on March 8 and 9. Both made calls, he said, to a common contact in South Africa, from here.

Police said the contact was a vital link to the investigations. Also, this has shifted the focus of operations to South Africa.

A team of the Delhi police had gone to Kochi on Sunday. Two other teams had been sent to Mumbai and Bangalore as Sanjiv had at all these places stayed in the same hotels where Cronje stayed.

The questioning of Rajesh Kalra, a friend of Sanjiv, had shown that the two of them had a fight in Kochi, police said. ``Though South Africa had lost the game, they had scored too many runs (301) which had upset the calculations and profits of the bookies,'' a police officer said.

Police today could not question film actor Kishan Kumar, brother of the T-Series founder, the late Gulshan Kumar, and a friend of Sanjiv Chawla as he had been admitted to hospital. A notice has been served on him under Section 160 Cr.PC to appear before police in the case.

However, a medical panel which visited Kishan Kumar at Kailash Hospital in Noida today declared him unfit for ``cross- examination''. The four-member panel said though there had been considerable improvement in the condition of Kishan Kumar _ who was admitted to the hospital on April 7 with hypertension and angina problem _ he was not in a position to undergo the stress of ``cross-examination'' for the next 48 to 72 hours.

The panel, nevertheless, said that Kishan Kumar, who was shifted today from the Intensive Care Unit to a general ward, was in a position to give a ``statement'' as there was improvement in his general health. Hence, a Crime Branch team visited him.

Sources said, Kishan Kumar had allegedly paid Rs 40 lakhs to Sanjiv Chawla for financing his match-fixing activities. Besides Kishan Kumar, the names of three others _ Mohan Khattar and Sunil of Lajpat Nagar, and Hans of Model Town _ who allegedly financed Sanjiv's activities figured during the questioning of Rajesh Kalra, whose police remand was extended by a Delhi court by four days on Sunday.

Kishan Kumar, it is alleged had also paid the bill of the hotel where Sanjiv had stayed in Mumbai last month. Police are trying to verify who paid the hotel bills for Sanjiv in Bangalore and Kochi.

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