Probe in the IPL betting and match-fixing scandal has gone beyond bookies, team owners and cricketers. Now, some police officers find themselves in the middle of the controversy.
A few IPS officers who were entrusted with the task of investigating the multi-crore scam have levelled allegations against each other.
While G. Sampathkumar, an IPS officer who headed ‘Q’ Branch CID, has accused top officers in the Crime Branch CID of favouring a prime suspect in the scam by not probing the match-fixing angle, CB-CID officers are making a similar allegation against him.
Since the Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee report has brought on record the statements of Mr. Sampathkumar — he even accused the CB-CID of overlooking crucial evidence — there is a possibility the case may be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation this week.
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Cold storage
When Chennai Port Trust was bogged down with the congestion issue, shipping minister G.K. Vasan made a daring attempt, in January 2012, to revive the decade-old Ennore-Manali Road Improvement Project that was put on the backburner by political parties for various reasons.
Things brightened up when Mr. Vasan was ably supported by the then Assembly speaker D. Jayakumar, who represented the Royapuram constituency. There was hardly any co-operation from State government agencies and the removal of Mr. Jayakumar from the Speaker’s position complicated the issue further.
To date, encroachments near Chennai Port have remained where they were. Many expected Mr. Vasan to inaugurate his pet project before the end of his tenure in the Rajya Sabha on April 2.
While he was not able to retain his Rajya Sabha seat, it is still uncertain if he will contest the Lok Sabha polls.
When asked about the project, the shipping minister said, “We have done our best and completed 80 per cent of the work. Co-operation from the State government is lacking. However, people have started using the road.”
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‘Traffic’ cleared
Here is a case of a person, known for springing surprises on others, getting stumped. K.R. Ramaswamy, popularly called ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy, received a shock nine months ago.
He was informed that he stood disqualified from contesting in elections for three years, as he had failed to submit a statement of election expenses to the poll authorities of Tiruvarur assembly constituency, where he contested in 2011.
But, Mr. Ramaswamy is not one to give up easily.
According to him, he did file the statement but the original copy, which had the endorsement of the poll official, was stolen from his office on the Madras High Court premises.
He even got an FIR registered with the local police station and, subsequently, moved Madras High Court.
In fact, he contested from the T. Nagar assembly constituency in 2011 and officials in charge of the constituency are in possession of his statement, whereas the Tiruvarur officials appear to have misplaced the documents, he said.
About a month ago, he sent a representation to chief election commissioner V.S. Sampath and, last week, the Commission wrote to him and the authorities concerned saying his disqualification had been rescinded.
By S. Vijay Kumar, N. Anand and T. Ramakrishnan
