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CBI launches nation-wide hunt for Mukesh Gupta

The Central Bureau of Investigation has launched a nation-wide hunt for Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta named by disgraced former South African captain Hansie Cronje as having offered him money to throw a match.

Agency sources said the alleged bookmaker was still evading questioning though his father and advocate claimed he was holidaying.

After media reports about his holidaying, sleuths of the special crime branch approached his father again to produce his son before the agency for questioning, the sources said.

The agency had procured a photograph from his father, which has been circulated to other branches of CBI in the country and main railway stations, bus stations and airports to prevent his possible escape abroad.

The sources said the agency wanted to question him on Cronje's deposition before the King Commission in South Africa where Cronje stated that former Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin had introduced Gupta to him.

Cronje stated that Gupta offered him money for throwing a Test match against India in Kanpur during 1996 series.

Gupta's counsel Vineet Malhotra reiterated that his client was holidaying in a hill resort but added "Gupta has not contacted me for last few days."

Gupta's father K L Gupta, who owns a jewellery shop, had earlier claimed that his son was "missing" and expressed the apprehension that he might have been picked up by an investigating agency in the wake of Cronje's charge.

The Delhi police has also said it would question Gupta in connection with the match-fixing case.

Meanwhile, Sports Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa said the CBI was doing its job in the cricket match-fixing scandal and the government was ready to take the assistance of any other agency to establish the truth.

The minister, however, did not specify what other agency he had in mind.

"CBI was handed over the investigations after mutual consultations with all concerned. If its work is not found to be satisfactory, we will have to sit and decide about other options," Dhindsa said.

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