India women team cricketer approached to fix matches
New Delhi, Sep 16: In an unprecedented development, a member of the India women cricket team was allegedly approached to fix matches earlier this year, prompting the BCCI's Anti-Corruption Unit to lodge an FIR against two individuals on Monday.
The alleged incident, which the player reported to the Board's ACU, took place in February, ahead of the limited-overs home series against England.
Ajit Singh Shekhawat, who heads the ACU, confirmed the development to PTI.
"She is an Indian international cricketer so the ICC conducted an inquiry into it. The ICC warned the person who made the approach and informed us and acknowledged that the cricketer has done the right thing by reporting the approach," Shekhawat said.
The ACU has registered a first-information report (FIR) with the Bengaluru police against two individuals, Rakesh Bafna and Jitendra Kothari, for the alleged approach.
"We followed that inquiry and it was much more than that. If we let that person off with a warning it doesn't make any difference at all.
"... So we went into his other links and connected the dots and we gave it to the police because we have no jurisdiction over them. We have jurisdiction only over participants. So they are going to investigate it," Shekhawat added.
The case has been registered under four sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including Section 420, which pertains to cheating.
The player is said to have also recorded the conversation she had with one of the accused over the telephone.
It is learnt that the player was approached while she was undergoing recovery sessions at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, with Kothari, who introduced her to Bafna, claiming to be a sports manager.
The incident showed that women cricketers are also vulnerable to corrupt approaches like their male counterparts.
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Broken relationships don't automatically amount to abetment of suicide: SC
New Delhi (PTI): Broken relationships, while emotionally distressing, do not automatically amount to abetment of suicide in the absence of intention leading to the criminal offence, the Supreme Court on Friday said.
The observations came from a bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Ujjal Bhuyan in a judgement, which overturned the conviction of one Kamaruddin Dastagir Sanadi by the Karnataka High Court for the offences of cheating and abetment of suicide under the IPC.
"This is a case of a broken relationship, not criminal conduct," the judgment said.
Sanadi was initially charged under Sections 417 (cheating), 306 (abetment of suicide), and 376 (rape) of the IPC.
While the trial court acquitted him of all the charges, the Karnataka High Court, on the state's appeal, convicted him of cheating and abetment of suicide, sentencing him to five years imprisonment and imposing Rs 25,000 in fine.
According to the FIR registered at the mother's instance, her 21-year-old daughter was in love with the accused for the past eight years and died by suicide in August, 2007, after he refused to keep his promise to marry.
Writing a 17-page judgement, Justice Mithal analysed the two dying declarations of the woman and noted that neither was there any allegation of a physical relationship between the couple nor there was any intentional act leading to the suicide.
The judgement therefore underlined broken relationships were emotionally distressing, but did not automatically amount to criminal offences.
"Even in cases where the victim dies by suicide, which may be as a result of cruelty meted out to her, the courts have always held that discord and differences in domestic life are quite common in society and that the commission of such an offence largely depends upon the mental state of the victim," said the apex court.
The court further said, "Surely, until and unless some guilty intention on the part of the accused is established, it is ordinarily not possible to convict him for an offence under Section 306 IPC.”
The judgement said there was no evidence to suggest that the man instigated or provoked the woman to die by suicide and underscored a mere refusal to marry, even after a long relationship, did not constitute abetment.
