CBI books match-fixing hero

Ishwar Singh Redhu, the Delhi inspector who investigated Hansie Cronje, the former South African captain, and broke the match-fixing scandal in 2000, was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials and a case registered against him. He has been charged with possessing Rs 40 lakh worth of disproportionate assets. Singh had brought to light the conversation between alleged bookie Sanjeev Chawla and Cronje and earned himself a recommendation for the Indian president's medal in 2001.

Kolkatta-based newspaper The Telegraph reported that the 7 am raid yielded assets worth Rs 75 lakh, apart from Rs 1.07 lakh in cash. It also threw up a list of his other possessions: a Rs 7.2 lakh plot, a Rs 14 lakh flat, a bank balance of Rs 1.6 lakh and an investment of Rs 25 lakh in a petrol pump in Haryana. Singh has been promptly transferred from the Tughlaq Road police station, where he was the station house officer, to the foreigners regional registration office. The newspaper speculated that his previous stint with the crime branch's anti-extortion cell might have given him the opportunity to build his fortune.

In April 2000, asked to investigate complaints by Delhi businessmen of extortion, he was listening to telephone taps on two suspects when he stumbled onto Cronje's conversation with Sanjeev Chawla, the Indian bookmaker. Later, it led to a public confession by Cronje and his subsequent ban from the game.