From bank clerk to big-time bookie

Onkar Singh

The Central Bureau of Investigation's probe into match-fixing allegations against Indian players depended very heavily on one person -- Mukesh Gupta, the bookie named by former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje.

Forty-five-year-old Mukesh Gupta was working as a bank clerk before he started dabbling in the match-fixing. Prior to that he was not even interested in cricket. But someone told him that he could make quick money by becoming a bookie. That changed his life and he entered the "business" at his personal risk.

Then someone introduced him to Mohammad Azaharuddin and that became the turning point in his career. He resigned his job and took to match-fixing.

Initially, it was only weather reports that he obtained from the players, but later decided that it was no point paying big money to the players just for weather information, particularly in England. So he deputed one of his boys in London for the period of the matches being there to provide him views of columnists, commentators and players which appeared in newspapers.

Mukesh Gupta used to reside in Ballimaran in Chandni Chowk when he was working with a bank. Now he has a two-and-a-half storey bungalow in Defence Colony and a huge jewellery shop in South Extension in South Delhi.

Since Gupta is not fluent in English, he hired people to converse with foreign players who had dealings with him. "He can speak English but haltingly," said a CBI official.

Gupta was summoned to CBI headquarters on three different occasions and each time he was grilled for three-and-a-half hours.

"Initially he was reluctant to give information but once he realised that we could be tough with him he decided to come clean. That made our task a bit easier and we found that whatever he was telling us was reliable," R N Sawani, CBI joint director, who headed the investigation, told rediff.com.

Attempts to contact Mukesh Gupta after the report was made public proved futile.

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