BCCI inquiry finds prima facie case against Kale

DV Subba Rao, the man who conducted the inquiry set up to investigate the bribery scandal, has said in his report that there is prima facie evidence against Abhijit Kale to justify a deeper probe. A key element in his findings were the repeated phone calls made by Kale to the selectors concerned, Kiran More and Pranab Roy.

A copy of Subba Rao's report was presented by the BCCI counsel during the Mumbai High Court hearings regarding Kale's plea to revoke his suspension. The report revealed More's statement that Kale made phone calls to him in June and July, offering him Rs 10 lakhs (approximately US$21,900 ) for a place in the Indian side. Kale's counsel, Janak Dwarkadas and Vineet Naik, countered this by claiming that Kale had merely wanted to apprise the selectors that "his shoulder injury had healed and he was fit to be included" in the team.

Kale had allegedly also called Roy five times and had once met him at an airport in Mumbai to offer him the same amount of money. Roy apparently reprimanded Kale for making this "nuisance offer."

More also said that Kale's mother had come to his house in Vadodara with an offer. He said, "Mrs Kale also visited my Baroda [the previous name of Vadodara] house in my absence and spoke to my wife."

More disregarded the visit, he said to Subba Rao, because he thought it to be the anxiety of a mother, and said that he had seen such obsessive behaviour in the relatives of other cricketers as well.

Subba Rao recommended to the BCCI that they appoint another committee to "go into much more depth" in the matter. "A player persistenly phoning selectors is itself not proper," he said, "and phoning for selection is worse. Kale's mother visiting More's Baroda residence further points the needle of suspicion against him."

To Kale's claim that his mother had only gone to Vadodara to hand over his fitness certificate, Subba Rao observed that the journey from Thane - where she resides - to Vadodara is at least seven hours. "If it was only to give the letter certainly that could have been sent by post or fax." Kale's reply to this was that he could not get the fax number, which is why his mother made the trip.