Neeraj Kumar, now 64, was the Delhi Police Commissioner when his subordinates broke the 2013 IPL betting-fixing scandal by arresting several cricketers, and he now heads the BCCI’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU). Kumar spoke to Qaiser Mohammad Ali on the challenges of tackling the menace of betting and match-fixing. Excerpts:
Do you see a spurt in bookies’ activities?
One can never know, because we get information about their moves once in a while, but that is no measure of what they are doing behind the scenes. It’s not that if they are more or less active we’ll get to know. They are always active as the stakes are so high, though they’ve become more cautious and adopt newer techniques. On betting website Betfair alone, $45 million are bet on one IPL match. There are several such websites. And this is open betting; you can imagine what goes on in the dark sector. Most Indian bookies—and those who bet ‘petis’ and ‘khokhas’...
