Madhavan in Goa on
fact-finding mission

Board of Control for Cricket India inquiry commissioner K Madhavan arrived in Goa on Wednesday, on a fact-finding mission, even as the police continued its probe into the alleged printing and selling of fake tickets for the India-Australia fifth One-Day International in Margao last week.

"The BCCI is neither conducting an inquiry into the matter nor investigating it," he told rediff.com, adding that the board has no right to interfere with investigations.

The former CBI joint director expressed satisfaction with the probe and offered full co-operation from the BCCI.

"They are on the right track," he said.

Besides meeting Superintendent of Police (South Goa) I D Shukla and visiting the Margao police station in South Goa, where investigations are on, Madhavan met Goa Cricket Association president Dayanand Narvekar, a former deputy chief minister of Goa.

On Thursday, he plans to meet GCA secretary Vinod Phadke, who was interrogated by the police.

GCA treasurer Rama Shankar Das is in police custody on charges of printing and selling bogus tickets, and cheating.

"The BCCI is quite concerned about the happenings," said Madhavan, adding that such misdeeds should be stopped immediately in the interest of cricket.

Expressing ignorance over allegations of bogus tickets being sold for all matches in the just-concluded India-Australia series, he said: "This is the first time such an allegation have been made."

Meanwhile, the Goa police arrested Eknath Naik, brother-in-law of GCA president Narvekar, for allegedly selling bogus tickets. Thus, the total number of arrests in the case rose to six.

The police also searched the GCA office, sealed immediately after investigations into the ticket scandal began.

Police sources said evidence had been gathered to prove that besides the contractor, the GCA had unauthorisedly printed over 6,000 tickets and sold them to cricket fans.

In a letter to the police, the owner of Hi Tech Print System Ltd, Hyderabad, entrusted with printing tickets for the match, admitted to having printed 1,650 extra tickets, at the request of the GCA.

In addition, he said 760 tickets were later printed on March 28 for Pepsi, the official sponsors.

According to Shukla, the Hyderabad-based printer admitted to committing the fraud, but with good intentions, as the GCA had told him that the additional amount would be utilised for the development of the stadium in consultation with the Sports Authority of Goa.

Shukla also revealed that Goa-based printer Suresh Kankonkar has confessed that he had printed 750 tickets in Panaji.