da bet nacional： The International Cricket Council on Monday gave an ultimatum toIndian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta to become a formal approver by July 1
da dobrowin： Staff and Agencies19-Jun-2001* ICC gives ultimatum to Mukesh Gupta to turn approverThe International Cricket Council on Monday gave an ultimatum toIndian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta to become a formal approver by July 1.”The ICC has approved the report in full and will be implementing allthe 24 recommendations,” ICC President Malcolm Gray told reporters inLondon after the Executive Board meeting which unanimously approvedCondon’s findings.Condon, who heads the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) of ICC, led a worldwide probe into match-fixing and his findings culminated in a 36-pagereport released last month. He told PTI that a two-member team of ACUwill travel to India later this week to serve the ultimatum on Guptawho claimed to have given money to a number of internationalcricketers and figured prominently in the CBI report on betting andmatch-fixing.Condon said he had met Gupta twice in March this year and the bookiehad verbally confirmed all his allegations he made to CBI. “But thatis not enough to move forward with disciplinary proceedings (againstthe players). We have to have evidence to bring some closure to allthis as otherwise it will be unfair to allow the cloud of suspicion tohang over the players’ heads,” he said.”I have given Gupta an ultimatum that it is necessary to let us knowby July 1 whether he is willing to cooperate with his evidence eitherin India or outside. If he fails to heed to the ultimatum, we mustassume that he is not prepared to cooperate further,” said Condon, whoadded that the ICC would guarantee Gupta his safety if he agreed totestify before the ACU.* Cricket betting racket bustedPolice in Bangalore have busted a cricket betting and gambling racket,involving lakhs of rupees, with the arrest of 13 people, a top policeofficial said on Monday. Acting on information, a police team raided abuilding complex on the Race Course road on Sunday and rounded up 13people who were allegedly involved in the racket.”Investigation is in progress. We will come to know if it has nationaland international ramifications only after the probe is over,” CityPolice Commissioner, T Madiyal, told PTI. According to police,Prasanna Kumar and Jagannatha were allegedly conducting the racket.While Prasanna Kumar has been taken into custody, Jagannatha isabsconding.Police seized 23 telephones, eight mobile phones, seven taperecorders, cassette, calculator and cash of Rs 1,64,910 during theraid. It was found that those conducting the racket were acceptingbets over phone and jotting them on their book. Preliminaryinvestigation reveled that at least Rs 15 lakh to Rs 16 lakh couldhave been invested in betting. Police are collecting information onthose who offered bets. Meanwhile, telecom authorities said they wereexamining suspension of telephones of those allegedly involvedfollowing the incident.* Prabhakar denies involvement with chit-fund companyFormer Indian all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar on Monday denied that he wasin any way involved with the Uttar Pradesh based non-banking financecompany which is accused of duping investors to the tunes of crores ofrupees. The beleaguered cricketer, who had been untraceable ever sincethe UP police issued arrest warrant against him late last month, toldreporters in Lucknow that the NBFC Apace India had procured themarketing rights of the products of his cosmetics company which he hadestablished about five years ago.”My relationship with Apace was on company to company basis. Myassociation with Apace has been misunderstood,” he said, adding he wasnot involved with the company in any other way.The cricketer, already smarting under a five-year ban from playinginternational cricket for allegedly hob-nobbing with bookmakers, saidhe had cancelled the marketing rights given to Apace in April 1999.Flanked by his counsel Vinod Shahi and Anil Pratap Singh, Prabhakarhowever admitted that he had accompanied Apace officials to severalplaces in Uttaranchal during the launch of his company’s herbalproducts and had even played for the Apace cricket team.On being asked about his signatures on the receipts issued by Apace,he claimed he had signed those against purchase of his own company’sproducts at some places. In fact, he said, he had invested about Rs 25lakh in Apace and was now trying to recover his money.
