Wankhede ticket scam: Cops want to put snooker champ through lie-detector test

Jhaveri, who also happens to be the son of a member of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), has been named for handing out complimentary passes for Sachin Tendulkar's last Test match. The revelation came from one of the accused arrested in the ticket black-marketing scam, Girish Premna.

The Crime Branch is all set to request the Killa court for permission to carry out the lie detector test on Jhaveri. The Crime Branch had arrested Girgaum resident Janak Gandhi, a member of the Garware Club, as well as Premna and Ajay Jadhav in connection with the case. Premna works for Bombay Gymkhana and Jadhav for Islam Gymkhana.

The police had later arrested Abdul Rahman Pathani, also a member of Islam Gymkhana. The police informed that Pathani had given the complimentary passes to Jadhav who then gave it to Premna. Premna and Gandhi then teamed up and sold themfor Rs 25,000. MiD DAY had reported on the ticket racket (‘Cops nab kingpin, unearth two more ticket scams,' November 16).

The police had also seized complimentary passes allotted by the MCA from the accused, but have failed to get any answers regarding the source so far. "We questioned Jhaveri, whose father is a member of the MCA and he told us that he had given five complimentary passes and eight tickets to Premna for free, just to watch the match. But the CCTV footage shows Premna take a plastic polythene bag with him while going to Jhaveri's house, and there was no sign of the bag later. The bag surely had cash," said a police officer from the property cell of Mumbai Crime Branch.u00a0The police said that complimentary passes were sold for Rs 25,000 while tickets costing Rs 1,000 was sold for Rs 8,000.u00a0