Wanted bookie Sanjeev Chawla extradited from UK

Sanjeev Chawla, a bookie accused in a high-profile match-fixing scandal involving late South African cricketer Hansie Cronje, was on Thursday extradited to India.

Chawla (50) was brought from the UK to New Delhi by a team of Delhi Police's Crime Branch, which is investigating the case, and it marks the first high-profile extradition under the India-UK Extradition Treaty signed in 1992.

Police had filed a charge sheet naming Chawla and Cronje for "fixing matches played between India and South Africa from February 16, 2000, to March 20, 2000, in India".

The match-fixing scandal had rocked the cricket world in 2000 after Delhi Police intercepted a telephone conversation between Chawla and Cronje in which the South African cricketer purportedly accepted money to lose matches.

After he exhausted his legal options to challenge the extradition request by India, the UK authorities finally cleared his extradition to India.

He had raised concerns about his security in jail but they were over-ruled by British courts after Indian authorities convinced them that there will be no harm to his life besides sharing the details of the cell he would be kept in Tihar. The Indian authorities also told the British courts that he would not share the jail cell with any one else and would be provided with the "personal space and hygiene requirements" the court expects.

Chawla had moved to the UK soon after the police filed an FIR in March 2000 following which his Indian passport was revoked in 2000 while in 2003, he was allowed to remain indefinitely in the UK. Two years later, he obtained a British passport but was arrested in June 2016 following India's request for his extradition.

According to police, Chawla got introduced to Cronje in January-February 2000 and the former allegedly suggested to Cronje, who died in a plane crash in 2002, that he could make extra money if he agreed to lose cricket matches.