Sports: Match Fixing, Carving Up Mumbai

As the DRI hands over a revealing tape to CBI, the match-fixing inquiry hits Mumbai's mafia. But the city's bookie syndicates are already in the midst of a blood feud.

Sometime in the past week, somewhere in the midst of the Indian cricket establishment's acrimonious warfare, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Mumbai, handed over some tapes to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team investigating the match-fixing scandal. The tapes contained recordings of a conversation between Anees Ibrahim -- Dubai-based brother of the formidable Dawood -- and a man in Mumbai on November 6 and 7, 1996.

SUBODH MEHTA
"It's not a crime to know Sachin or his in-laws"

Q. The D gang has accused your son Shobhan of fixing matches?
A. Because we refuse to surrender. Most of the bookies honour Shobhan's word, which makes his position too strong for the D gang. They have even given a contract to kill Shobhan so that they can control the Mumbai betting business.
Q. You are accused of fixing Pakistani players at Sharjah and of links with Indian and South African players.
A. It is not true. At times we get involved indirectly when punters bet because they have information about fixing. In such cases we can't refuse our regular clients but also don't encourage them.
Q. Shobhan's association with Tendulkar has come under scrutiny. Were you invited to his wedding?
A. Knowing Sachin or his in-laws is not a crime.
Q. Which teams do you suspect of fixing?
A. Asian teams are considered susceptible. Middlemen having access to team managers, key players. But naming them is to invite death.
Q. Can Indian players be fixed?
A. Why not? We have been hearing names in the betting circuit for the past four years. The same names face serious charges today. It started in the north, mainly Delhi.
Q. Aren't you part of the same business?
A. We're bookies, not fixers. But bookies get involved directly or indirectly when the match is fixed. And nothing is possible without the underworld. They want to share your profit. Pakistani bookie Hanif Cadbury refused to part with his profit and he was killed last year in South Africa.

The DRI had been listening in on Anees' calls (no. 00 971 444 8585) in connection with a narcotics case. One fine day, they chanced upon a chat about rigging the final of the Titan Cup, in which India defeated South Africa by 35 runs. Anees' interlocutor's location was narrowed down to the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. The man himself is a cricketer with flamboyant taste, whose identity is an open secret across the country.

The CBI's entry into the dubious intersection of Mumbai's cricket and criminal worlds has only added a new twist to a battle of excruciating contortions. Even if the Delhi Police had not blown the whistle on Hansie Cronje, even if I.S. Bindra had kept his own counsel, Mumbai would have seen upheaval.

The city is now the arena for the final battle between two of the largest fixing and betting syndicates in sport -- one run by a Gujarati-Marwari clique of diamond merchants, mill owners and traders, the other by Dubai-Karachi mafiosi.

The current round began in April 1999, during the Coca-Cola Cup in Sharjah. "Bhai has always won whenever he has put in money," says a source close to the D company, "but on April 12 he smelt a rat during the Pakistan-England match." Apparently, the Mumbai syndicate had paid the Pakistanis to lose. Dawood suffered to the tune of Rs 17 crore, "instigated an inquiry by the Pakistan cricket board" and asked the bookies to cancel all bets. Specifically, Chhota Shakeel (see interview), Dawood's lieutenant in Karachi, asked 19 top Mumbai bookies to make and accept no payments: "Stop all transactions and forget the Sharjah chapter forever."

One man refused. Shobhan Mehta -- who had taken over export house Subodh Diamonds as well as command of the betting syndicates from his father Subodh (see interview) -- insisted he would honour all bets. It wasn't quite an ethical issue. Says a police officer, "Shobhan defied Shakeel because the stake was too high and the punters were so reputed that non-payment would have destroyed him. It was a no-win situation."

Trouble recurred in winter 1999, after a Zimbabwe-Sri Lanka match. The D gang lost Rs 7 crore -- Vinod Chembur, its man in Mumbai, went bust. When India lost to New Zealand in Rajkot and the D gang lost another Rs 13 crore.

Shakeel then called an emergency meeting of all the big bookies at Mumbai's Kamat Club. Shobhan reached late. After a final warning, Shobhan asked the police for protection. The gloves were off.

Chembur and Virendra Borivali, who owed too many people too much money, went underground. Bookies like Praveen, Jayanti Malad, Anil Steel, Ashok Royal and Shailesh Ghatkopar fled the city. Chhota Rajan, Dawood's rival, called some top punters in Mumbai and Delhi and issued counter-threats.

As things stand today, Shobhan, whose presence at Sachin Tendulkar's wedding has been commented upon by former Pakistani cricketer Rashid Latif (India Today, May 1), is incommunicado. His 70-year-old father has come out of retirement to take on the enemy. Life in Mumbai's bookie world is short, nasty -- and just not cricket.

	INDIA TODAY \| HOME
	Cover Story \| Columns \| Nation \| Newsnotes \| From the Editor in Chief \| Editorials \| Eyecatchers States \| Voices \| Health \| Books \| Arts \| Economy \| Lifestyle \| Sports \| Offtrack \| Bodyline Centrestage \| Issue Contents


	May 29, 2000