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CONFESSIONS
OF A FIXER
SELECTIVE
REPORT
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Ajay
Gupta, 46, owns nine petrol pumps in Delhi and is known locally as the
"fuel king". He's also mentioned in the CBI report as a "punter/fixer".
Here he tells his story to Senior Assistant Editor
Ashok Malik:
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| Gupta's
'Friends': Mr and Mrs Azhar |
"On
Wednesday morning I woke up to find myself all over the newspapers, with
one report after the other making it seem that cricket fixing in this
country began and ended with me. I was surprised; nothing I had told the
CBI had been on these lines. I used to bet occasionally and count Azharuddin
and Ajay Sharma as acquaintances and have heard market gossip about the
fixer-bookie nexus-nothing more.
I found
the report severely flawed. It implies I asked Azhar to "fix"
the Jaipur India-Pakistan match in 1999 and quotes him as saying that
he received payment through an unknown intermediary. In which business
do you receive or send Rs 10 lakh through strangers? There are also hints,
entirely unsubstantiated, that I had a role to play in "rigging"
four India-South Africa matches in 2000.
There is
a constant reference to four people under the label "Ajay Gupta and
associates". The other three are Nishit Goel, who is my cousin, Gyan
Chand Gupta and his son Ameesh Gupta. Gyan Gupta is a former business
partner. I am not responsible for his actions or those of his son or Nishit.
If they bet and fix matches, presuming they do, why should I be made a
scapegoat? This reference to "Ajay Gupta and associates" makes
a group of social friends sound like a joint venture firm or a syndicate.
There are
two serious flaws in the CBI report. The first concerns my phone calls
to Azhar and vice versa. I tried to help Azhar get possession of a petrol
pump that had been allotted to him under then petroleum minister Satish
Sharma's discretionary quota. A court order had delayed the allotment.
In this regard I spoke to Azhar many times but the CBI has only picked
up two or three calls
coincidentally made before cricket matches and held this up as an example
of fixing. Will this pass muster before a criminal court? What about the
other calls made on days far away from cricket match dates?
Next, I am
accused of making payments to Azhar, Sharma and Sanjay Anand. Sharma and
Anand have denied receiving money. Azhar says he was paid by an “unknown”
person. Only Nishit has told the cbi he’d “heard” payments
were made. Nobody has seen me make payments. So why am I being singled
out? Azhar and his wife are my friends and we have met in Delhi. I have
paid for their shopping at times. Is this bribery?
I am not
unaware of the fixing racket. I have been a businessman long enough—and
cannot deny that I have bet small amounts occasionally. Ajay Sharma and
Manoj Prabhakar used to walk around Roshanara Club claiming they had teams
in their pockets and taking bets on one team’s behalf from one table
and another team’s behalf from another table. This was their way
of making some easy money. I never took them seriously and only put in
money sometimes. This was betting—illegal but very minor. It was
not fixing.
This brings
me to the second major flaw in the report—it’s not exhaustive.
Azhar once told me a politically well-connected hotelier had asked him
if they could “discuss matches”. Azhar told me he had turned
him down but said the hotelier was a big fixer. I have no idea whether
this is true. But it does not figure in Azhar’s deposition before
the cbi or anywhere in the report. Why? Can anyone explain this selective
condemnation?"
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How
can Non-Performing Assets of companies be cleared? By recovering what
you can, writes INDIA TODAY Associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar in
