Decision on Jadeja's case on August 6
Basharat Peer
In yet another hearing on cricketer Ajay Jadeja's civil writ
petition against the Board of Cricket Control of India, which banned him from cricket for five years, Justice Mukund Mudgal of the Delhi high court said the decision on whether the writ can be maintained or not would be taken only on Monday, August 6..
The Board of Control for Cricket in India had earlier justified its five-year
ban on Jadeja, on charges of match-fixing, in the Delhi high
court, saying there is plenty of evidence against the cricketer.
Appearing before Justice Mudgal on Wednesday afternoon, Jadeja's counsel P P
Malhotra criticised the Central Bureau of Investigation and Madhavan reports in the process of
his arguements for maintainability of the writ petition against the BCCI. He told the
court that the BCCI's action against Jadeja is "malafide" and the Madhavan report had heavily relied on the CBI report, which, he said, neither recommended any action nor specified any offence against those banned. However, Justice Mudgal directed him to refrain from tearing apart the CBI and focus on the petition.
Malhotra said allegations that his client recieved Rs 50,000 or 100,000 for leaking information on matches that India played were baseless. He had earlier told the court that the CBI had relied on telephone calls made by some persons to Jadeja, and asked whether merely receiving calls makes one guilty.
On Wednesday afternoon, records presented in the court showed that a
person named Umed Chand had called Jadeja 62 times in a day, and on the
second day of the Mohali Test, Chand had made eight calls to Jadeja.
Malhotra said propriety demanded that the CBI should have confronted Jadeja with the
documents, including the telephone bills, while probing the issue.
After hearing the arguements the judge observed that the court would decide on
the maintainability of the petition on Monday.
