Black marketing scam: Cops to seek scientific tests on accused

MUMBAI: City police will move an application before a court tomorrow seeking permission to conduct scientific tests on MCA member's son Chintan Zaveri, suspected of being involved in the black-marketing of tickets for cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar's 200th Test match last week, a police officer said today.

According to police, Zaveri, son of Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) member Pradeep Zaveri, had five complimentary passes and eight tickets worth Rs 1,000 each of Sachin's farewell match.

Girish Premnath, one of the four arrested accused, had claimed that a deal was struck that Zaveri would sell him complimentary passes for Rs 10,000 each, while eight tickets at the same price, that is Rs 1,000 each.

Zaveri and Premnath are Bombay Gymkhana members. "Premnath claimed that he had handed over Rs 50,000 of the Rs 58,000 to Zaveri at the latter's residence. However, Zaveri claimed he had only taken Rs 8,000 from Premnath for the eight tickets and gave complimentary tickets for free as they know each other very well," Joint Police Commissioner (Crime) Himanshu Roy said.

Suspecting Zaveri's version, police has decided to conduct scientific tests on him.

"We will move a local court tomorrow seeking permission to conduct lie detection, narco and polygraph tests on Zaveri," Roy added.

The person in question needs to give consent to undergo such tests.

Police have earlier arrested four accused namely Janak Gandhi (52), member of Garware Club House and Premnath (34) of Bombay Gymkhana, Ajay Jadhav (36) and Abdul Rehman Phatani of Islam Gymkhana, for selling a complimentary pass for Rs 25,000 and a Rs 1,000 ticket for Rs 8,000 outside the Wankhede Stadium.

According to police, after taking tickets from Zaveri, Premnath had sold them to Gandhi, who in turn sold them in the black market.