Cricket match-fixing case: Court orders framing cheating charges against 4

A court here has ordered framing charges of criminal conspiracy and cheating against four persons accused of fixing international cricket matches between India and South Africa in 2000.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Neha Priya was hearing the case against Rajesh Kalra, Krishan Kumar, Sunil Dara and Sanjeev Chawla. The Chanakaya Puri police station had registered a case against them.

Noting the evidence before it, the court said that the "chain of events, record of conversations, conduct and surrounding circumstances" showed the complicity of Kalra, Kumar and Dara in the deals struck by Chawla with Hansie Cronje (deceased and also an accused) and led to the "inference that they were acting in connivance and were co-participants in the main object of fixing cricket matches for monetary gain."

In an order passed on July 11, the court said there was sufficient material on record to frame charges against the four accused under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating) read with 12