‘It’s not as if we abducted Sreesanth’

Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, an avid cricket watcher himself has now switched off the game and says he’s stopped watching the Indian T20 League ever since the force busted the spot-fixing racket and arrested three Rajasthan Royal players. Excerpts from an interview:

Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, an avid cricket watcher himself has now switched off the game and says he’s stopped watching the Indian T20 League ever since the force busted the spot-fixing racket and arrested three Rajasthan Royal players. The expose has come as a reprieve to a man who, for long, has been under a cloud for the manner in which he handled the December gangrape in Delhi. Excerpts from an interview:

Delhi Police is investigating match-fixing and now the Mumbai Police has arrested CSK owner Gurunath Meiyappan. Shouldn’t there be some coordination between states. Bookies too are being arrested in different parts of the country...

At the moment there is no overlap. They are doing their work and we are doing ours.

But it’s the same T20 League?
It’s the same tournament, yes, but our case is against three players, three matches and three overs. Now, we also have leads about one more team.
But there does appear to be a turf war. Mumbai Police is going hell for leather after your team went to their jurisdiction to pick up players.
It’s not as if we abducted Sreesanth. For investigative purposes, there is no restriction on us going to any territory.

The spot-fixing expose appears to have come as some relief for you, given that you were under a cloud after the December 16 gangrape. Will you be retiring a happy man?

I don’t think I was under a cloud. It was all the creation of the media.