The accused of 2000 match-fixing scandal Sanjeev Chawla was arrested in London in June following an extradition request from India. The proceedings of the case will be heard in London on October 3, even as the UK’s Crown Protection Services (CPS) has written to Delhi Police asking for details about the security arrangements and facilities in the prison in which Chawla will be kept.
“The arrest was made following the Indian government’s extradition request. He faces charges of fixing cricket matches between India and South Africa in 2000,” Yasser Mehmood, press officer of the CPS, told the Indian Express. “Chawla’s case will be heard at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on October 3.”
In 2013 July, Chawla along with South Africa Hansie Cronje was named in the Delhi Police’s charge sheet filed for match fixing matches between February and March 2000. The scandal came into the limelight in April 2000 after Delhi Police got hold of a taped conversation between Cronje and Chawla in a conspiracy related to “match fixing and betting” during South Africa’s tour of India in 2000.
Cronje, who died in a plane crash in June 2002, later admitted that he had received 6000 pounds from Chawla for providing personal favours in a Test against England in Centurion in January 2000, in which he forfeited South Africa’s second innings in a rain-affected match. Chawla was also named in the King commission’s report had investigated Cronje’s activities.
In the first year of the new millennium, Chawla was arrested by Scotland Yard in North London for his alleged involvement in match-fixing. He was also an accused of offering money to two England players to underperform in a Test match against New Zealand at Old Trafford in 1999. In June that year, he was acquitted as there was “insufficient evidence” to prove the charges against him.
Meanwhile, the other bookies who were named in the list of gambles in the Delhi’s Polices 2013 charge sheet were Rajesh Karla, Krishna Kumar, Sunil Dara and Manmohan Khattar.