Spot-fixing scam: Neeraj Kumar emerges as a consummate survivor

NEW DELHI: The cracking of spot-fixing scam may have caused collateral damage to the game’s image in India and sent fans into a depressive swoon, but one person could be secretly smiling. Neeraj Kumar, the embattled police commissioner of Delhi and a self-confessed cricket fan, may be saddened at the latest scandal, but the sorrow cannot but be tinged with relief as his force’s cracking of the case will draw a thick line under calls for his ouster and pave the way for him to hang up his boots in a blaze of glory in July.


Until now Kumar was widely considered to be in his job on borrowed time, caught between an upset boss, a hostile Delhi CM, activists baying for his blood and a restive citizenry. So much so that speculation swirled in Delhi that Kumar, who retires on July 30, may be stripped off commissioner’s post before that.

Until cricket came to the rescue, and his force arrested Rajasthan Royals cricketers and a bunch of bookies. Kumar capitalised on the breakthrough, even eschewing the briefing room at the force’s headquarters in favour of the India Habitat Centre to hold a mega media briefing. He reminded the media that he was also a part of the CBI team that over a decade ago cracked a fixing case that saw the arrest of a bookie.

A source close to the commissioner, a 1976-batch IPS officer, said accolades had started pouring in from the top levels of the home ministry since Thursday morning, a much-needed relief for the alumnus of Delhi’s St. Stephens College. Kumar’s ill luck began last December with his handling of the public protests in the aftermath of the December 16 gang-rape incident. The late Justice JS Verma also criticised Kumar, saying he should have quit taking moral responsibility. His troubles and the pressure on him to quit continued to mount, with police lapses getting uncovered in incidents such as the rape of a minor girl in Delhi, West Bengal Mamata Banerjee being heckled by left activists in the Planning Commission and Jat protestors who barged into the Home Minister’s house.

A source close to Sushil Kumar Shinde says the minister was willing to strip him off his commissioner’s title in case inquiries into those incidents fixed responsibility. That never happened. Kumar has once again demonstrated that he remains a consummate survivor.