22 yards of deceit continues.....

As planned, before his second over, the young cricketer from Kerala, took out his hand-towel and tucked it in the front of his slacks. His warming up was longer than usual, as mutually agreed upon between him and the bookies, following which he did his best to throw away 14 runs but the batters could milk him only for 13 runs. The bookies however, were satisfied with his ‘sincere’ effort to do their bidding. We had intercepted the audio conversation of the deal and video recorded its execution during the course of the match.

Aware of another such ‘deal’ to be closed on May 15, 2013 between yet another Rajasthan Royal player Ankeet Chavan, and spot-fixers, we lay in wait until the rookie cricketer made his false move. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police in general and I, in particular, had come under heavy media and civil society attacks owing to the rape of a minor girl by her neighbour in East Delhi. Coming within four months of the ghastly Nirbhaya incident of December 16, 2012, my detractors, including some I had hunted down in the CBI for economic offences, the media and self-styled social activists had been on an overdrive targeting me. My officers in the Special Cell suggested we go public with our unearthing of the spot-fixing racket without waiting for Ankeet Chauhan to be netted. We already had two cricketers and a wide network of bookies and fixers with their mafia connections under our belt. Waiting for six more days was risk-ridden, as any leak from any quarter could mess up the entire operation. A pre-mature media disclosure of our operation following such a leak, my officers feared, would considerably neutralize the adverse public opinion against the Delhi Police and its beleaguered Commissioner, yours truly. I disagreed with them and decided that we must wait.

To be continued.....