Delhi Police likely to file chargesheet today in Hansie Cronje match-fixing case of 2002

The Delhi Police is likely to file a chargesheet today in the 13-year old match fixing case which involved the late South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje and some other South African players.

The police have prepared a detailed chargesheet which would be presented before a chief metropolitan magistrate in New Delhi against five bookies.

Cronje was banned from the game for life in October 2000, six months after Delhi police revealed that an India-South Africa One Day International (ODI) match played in March was fixed and accused him of taking money from an Indian bookie Sanjeev Chawla during his team's tour of India the same year.

The police said they intercepted phone conversations between London-based bookie Sanjeev Chawla and Cronje which suggested that money was exchanged to fix the match.

Though he initially denied the allegations, Cronje later admitted before an enquiry commission that he took 15,000 dollars to leak information about forecasts before the match. He died in a helicopter crash in 2002.

Other South African cricketers like Nicky Boje and Herchelle Gibbs also admitted to taking money for under- performance, at an inquiry held in South Africa.

The Delhi Police will file the chargesheet in a trial court.

The operative portion of the chargesheet, according to reports, is likely to be 70 pages. But the annexures, which will include call data records, voice sample test reports and bank details will run into at least 2000 pages.

According to sources both Boje and Gibbs will find a mention but most likely will not be named as accused in the chargesheet because the police say they do not have enough evidence against them.

Bookie Sanjeev Chawla is likely to be named as the main accused and another Delhi-based bookie Rajesh Kalra will also find a mention.

The case comes back to the spotlight after the recent spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) held this year.

Sources say the Delhi Police is expected to file a chargesheet later this week in the spot-fixing case, which involves three Rajasthan Royals players S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan.