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Delhi HC upholds Sanjeev Chawla bail in match fixing case
The ruling came on a plea by Delhi Police which had sought cancellation of bail granted to bookie Sanjeev Chawla contending that he would try to abscond, and tamper with evidence
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday upheld the bail granted to alleged bookie Sanjeev Chawla by a trial court last week. Chawla, an accused in the 2000 cricket match fixing scandal,was extradited to India from the UK in February.
Justice Asha Menon said that there is no evidence either through action or words which show that Chawla “has or intends to thwart the process of justice or prevent fair trial”.
“The State has not succeeded in making out a case for cancellation of bail of the accused….. ,” the court said while recommending the use of technology used by countries to track under-trials who are out on bail. The court also said that though the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain referred to the existence of an alleged syndicate, the existence of such a syndicate was still being investigated.
The ruling came on a plea by Delhi Police which had sought cancellation of bail granted to Chawla contending that he would try to abscond, and tamper with evidence. The ASG had also said that it took seven years (after filing of the charge sheet in 2013) to extradite Chawla from the UK, and there is evidence that he had fixed matches with the former South African captain Hansie Cronje.
The court, however, said it cannot be overlooked that out of the remaining four accused in the case, three were arrested in the year 2000, when the FIR was registered, and all of them are on bail. The high court told Chawla not to leave the city and keep his phone operational at all times.
