Former Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar has lamented the lack of seriousness of the hitmen in bringing a law against corruption in Indian sports. Not only this, he also said that this was also a big reason why former fast bowler S. Sreesanth survives Indian Premier League 2013 season despite strong evidence of spot-fixing.

Let us tell you, Neeraj Kumar is a very famous IPS officer who has done S. Sreesanth and Rajasthan Royals teammates Ajit Chandila and Ankit Chhawan were arrested on charges of spot-fixing. However, in 2019, the Supreme Court asked the Board of Control for Cricket in India to reconsider the lifetime ban to which he was subject, despite the evidence against the former fast bowler. After this S. Sreesanth’s sentence was reduced to 7 years which ended in September 2020.

According to India Today, Kumar said, ‘It seems that the matter has gone nowhere. Unfortunately there is no law to deal with corruption in cricket in India. Even in a country like Zimbabwe there are strict laws. Australia, New Zealand, even Europe have laws because there is corruption not only in cricket but also in football, tennis, golf and all other sports.

Neeraj Kumar made a big revelation

Let us tell you, Neeraj Kumar was also associated with the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal in 2000 as part of the CBI investigation team. He said that there were certain areas due to which the cricketer was saved from being found guilty of support fixing.

Neeraj Kumar said, ‘For example, the things we do do not stand the test of judicial scrutiny. If we say that people were cheated during match fixing then now the court will ask, show me a person who has been cheated and produce that person in the court. Who will come to the court and say that I went to the cricket match expecting fair play and I play the match to the best of my ability for everyone. This makes it very difficult to prove the case in the absence of the victim.

The law has been working since 2013 to prevent such malpractice in India. It is noteworthy that in the Prevention of Sporting Fraud Bill (2013) introduced in the Lok Sabha in 2018, a provision of 5 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10 lakh was made for those found guilty of sports fraud including fixing. The bill was drafted by Justice (retd) Mukul Mudgal and was seen as an important step to curb match-fixing. It was to replace the ‘Public Gambling Act 1867’, under which anyone indulging in betting could The person could also be fined only Rs 200 or be jailed for three months.