Hansie’s fixer to finally face the music
Chawla loses 4-year extradition battle
STROLLING near his London home, is the businessman at the centre of one of the biggest cricket match-fixing scandals.
For the past four years, Sanjeev Chawla has fought attempts to extradite him to his native India to face a string of charges related to match-fixing during South Africa’s tour of the country 20 years ago. But the 52-yearold’s battle has now ended after the Court of Appeal ruled that he should be returned to India.
Police from Delhi are now set to travel to the UK and detain Chawla before putting him on a plane back to India. He should be out of the UK by February 20.
Chawla was arrested in London in June 2016 but Westminster magistrates concluded in October 2017 that his human rights could not be guaranteed in Delhi’s Tihar prison, where he was to be held, and his extradition was denied.
But the high court overturned the decision on appeal and on February 27 last year, and then home secretary Sajid Javid signed an extradition order in relation to Chawla.
For 10 years Chawla has been living with his wife Deepika and their two young sons in a £1 million (R19.25m) rented six-bedroom property in Temple Fortune, north London.
The fugitive runs a catering business in Kennington, south-east London.
When approached last week, Chawla refused to comment on when he was likely to be taken back to India. According to court papers, India wanted him extradited due to his “alleged criminal conduct between January and March 2000”.
Police in India tapped and taped phone calls between Chawla and then South African cricket captain Hansie
Cronje during which One-Day and Test matches against India were discussed.
Chawla was accused of being the middleman between Cronje and bookies in India who rake in millions each year from the country’s illegal gambling industry. Chawla had his Indian passport revoked in 2000, but having moved to London in 1996 obtained a UK passport in 2005.
He is understood to have become heavily involved in cricket betting in the late 1990s and was linked to Rajesh Kalra, who is one of the biggest cricket betting operators in the world.
The two are understood to have met in 1999 in London, where they reportedly worked on plans to fix matches.
Cronje, who died in a plane crash in 2002, was unveiled as a cricket cheat and banned from the game for life by the King Commission in South Africa in 2000. Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams were banned for six months.
The Home Office said: “Chawla has now exhausted his rights to appeal. Once the final orders from the court have been received, arrangements will be made for his extradition to take place within 28 days.”