NEWS
SCHEDULES
COLUMNS
PREVIOUS TOURS
OTHER SPORTS
STATISTICS
INTERVIEWS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Kishan Kumar denies meeting Cronje

Kishan Kumar, the Delhi-based actor-businessman who is alleged to be involved in the cricket match-fixing scandal, today denied any personal role in it although he admitted his friendship with the co-accused Sanjeev Chawla and Rajesh Kalra, who is in police custody.

"No, I am not involved in any way. I just told this to my interrogators from the crime branch," Kumar asserted at a crowded press conference in the Kailash Hospital in Noida, New Delhi..

The press conference began in dramatic fashion with the four doctors who attended on him today, led by Dr Mahesh Sharma, bringing in a sophisticated gadget to monitor Kumar's pulse, blood pressure and heartbeat.

The accused was wheel-chaired to an oval-shaped table from where he addressed reporters. He appeared visibly ill and drowsy, barely able to keep his blood-shot eyes open. He blood pressure had risen to 180/110 when he began the press conference and Dr Sharma had to remind reporters "do not cross-question Kishan."

After being put through the treadmill and colour-doppler echo cardiogram, the doctors permitted Kumar to go ahead with the press conference. But not before Delhi Assistant Commissioner of Police Rishipal Singh interrogated the accused for about 20 minutes.

Rishipal said: "I could interrogate him (Kumar) for a short time because he is unwell. But I will interrogate him later," though he did not say when.

Asked what transpired during his interrogation, Rishipal said, "That cannot be told; it is of confidential nature."

Then reporters inundated Kumar with questions designed to reveal his link with the others accused in the scandal but he systemtically denied everything.

"I have never met Cronje," (the sacked South African skipper) he said, replying to a query, but admitted that he had met Indian cricketer Ajay Jadeja a couple of times.

Dwelling on his friendship with other accused Sanjeev Chawla, who is reportedly in the United Kingdom, Kumar contended: "I know Sanjeev for the last 20 years and I also know Rajesh Kalra for about five years."

Asked whether he had booked hotel rooms for either Chawla or Kalra, Kumar said, "When I go to London, they treat me very well and I respond in like manner; and if they need hotel accomodation, I often book it. There is nothing wrong in that."

However, beyond that, he denied any kind of involvement in the scandal which has shaken the entire cricket community.

"I don't know why I am being involved. You people are the best judge," he pleaded before the reporters, who were in no mood to spare him.

Denying that he had ever met the sacked South African cricket captain, Kumar said he had been summoned by Delhi police's crime branch which wanted to know whether he was being threatened. He maintained that in the course of the last five months he had been threatened by notorious gangster Alibudesh, whose men had fired at him and his shop. Thereafter, he was provided security.

Denying that he paid Sanjeev Chawla's hotel bills in Cochin recently, he said his friendship with Kalra had grown after he shifted to Greater Kailash II. "But friendship with Chawla and Kalra does not mean that I am involved in whatever they do," Kumar asserted, rejecting suggestions that his friendship with the other Indian bookies had more than the "innocent" dimension.

"I have nothing to hide and I am confident that the truth will come out," he said, adding that he had met former Indian cricketer Manoj Prabhakar a couple of times.

Prabhakar was in the eye of the cricket match-fixing controversy which resulted in the Chandrachud Commission going into allegations made by him against an unnamed former team mate. However, nothing came out of it, and despite the passage of three years, the Chandrachud report has not yet been made public.

Saying that he has not moved anticipatory bail, Kumar told a reporters that his business is flourishing and all reports that he had recently incurred huge loses are blatantly false.

"I will be discharged from this hospital when I am allowed to be discharged," he said, pointing out that since the scandal surfaced, Chawla did not contact him.

Kumar maintained that people like him were often under threat which is cause for great worry to him, his family and friends and hoped that he will honourably be acquitted from all the allegations levelled against him.

By this time, Kumar's blood pressure had risen to 170/120 and he became drowsy again. Dr Sharma intervened to end the press conference, saying he would not risk his patient's "frail health" any further.

ALSO SEE
Kishen Kumar found fit