New Delhi, Cricket bookie Sanjeev Chawla is set to be extradited to India as his application at a European human rights court to block extradition was rejected on Thursday.
Chawla could be brought to India in 2-3 days, said a Delhi Police Crime Branch source.
The London court as well as the UK government were all prepared to hand over the bookie to India, sources said.
The court rejected Chawla’s plea saying his application was not fit for consideration. Talking to the media in London, the spokesperson for the European Court of Human Rights said it had refused to accept Chawla’s application for interim relief.
On police response to Chawla’s extradition, a ACP-ranked Crime Branch officer said, “We have done our homework. We were waiting for the European Human Rights Court’s decision, which has been on the expected lines.”
“The responsibility to bring Chawla to India has been given to DCP G. Ramgopal Naik and his team,” the officer said.
Sources said Chawla, the front man of actor-producer Krishan Kumar of the music company T-Series, was also in touch with a few Bollywood celebrities involved in betting. Kumar, charge-sheeted in the match fixing case, had not only given his mobile phone to Chawla to contact then South African captain Hansie Cronje but also introduced him to several big punters of Mumbai and Delhi.
Investigation revealed that Chawla was in contact with several top players of New Zealand, Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa.
Through one of the bookies Mukesh Gupta, London-based hotelier Chawla got in touch with anex-Indian cricket captain and virtually got inside the team’s dressing room.
Chawla was arrested by the Scotland Yard when he approached two international cricketers — Alec Stewart and Allan Mullaly — in early 2000. But they denied role in match-fixing and were let off. Former New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming was also quizzed by the Scotland Yard.
