NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police Crime Branch will bring bookie Sanjeev Chawla to India on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday. Sanjeev Chawla is set to be extradited to India within 24 hours after he exhausted options to resist it.
He is wanted in India to face charges of match-fixing during South Africa's tour in 2000. According to sources, he will be extradited in the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday. It will be India's first successful extradition since the treaty was signed with the UK in 1992.
The only previous instance of extradition was voluntary. Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, who was wanted in a case related to the 2002 Gujarat riots, agreed to be extradited in October 2016.
Delhi Police Crime Branch DCP with his team reached London on Sunday to complete the legal formalities. A team of Delhi Police is here to escort him to India, where he is listed to be lodged in the Tihar Jail. New Delhi submitted three sovereign assurances to the court about his safety in the jail.
According to court records, India sought Chawla's extradition due to his alleged criminal conduct between January and March 2000. It was discovered when law enforcement agencies undertook telephone
tapping in an unrelated investigation.
"The telephone tapping is alleged to have revealed plans to fix the outcome of forthcoming cricket matches between the touring South African and the Indian test cricket teams. The agreements allegedly reached including the number of runs that would not be exceeded by the South African team in both of their innings in a particular match", the records stated.
For the past four years, Sanjeev Chawla has fought attempts to extradite him to India to face a string of charges relating to match-fixing during South Africa's tour of the country 20 years ago. But the 52-year-old's battle has now ended after the Court of Appeal ruled that he should be returned to India.