KATHMANDU, Nov 10: The Special Court on Monday has begun hearing on the treason charges against five footballers and a physiotherapist after recording their statements over their alleged involvement in match-fixing during international matches.
A day after the government charge-sheeted them with treason demanding life term for them, the Special Court began hearing on the bail plea of the players.
Kathmandu District Attorney's Office had registered a charge-sheet against the six players as per Clause 3 (1) of the Crime Against the State and Punishment Act, 2046. The charge-sheet states that the accused were found to have accepted money from international agents in order to lose matches.
Special Court acquits footballers of match-fixing charges
According to Special Court Registrar Bhadrakali Pokharel, because of the time constraints, the court postponed the hearing till Tuesday morning. During an hour-long court inquiry, the players denied their involvement in the match-fixing and repeated that they were framed. Two of them said that they received money as an advance for their association with international clubs. However, the chargesheet presented at the Special Court states that the cause of the different financial transactions made at different intervals remains unclear.
It was unveiled that Rs 3.9 million was received by various players with the involvement of their kin, including mother and brother, among others. The chargesheet includes five transactions made with Malaysian citizen Kesavan Pattan since 2012 and a transaction with Singapore citizen Titani So Periasamy in 2009. In each transaction, KC is found to have received cash himself using control numbers sent from the international agents. The other agents sending money to KC were Avudaiyappan Palaniappan, Jivananthan Superamani and Manimuthu Arumugam.
Similarly, Ritesh Thapa is found to have revceived money from Singaporian Titani So Periasamy in 2009 using control number.
According to the chargesheet, the other receivers of the cash on behalf of the players were Nabin Karki twice in 2012, Binod Khadka twice in 2011, Babita Bista in 2011, Ushab Paudel in 2011, Shova KC in 2011, Sikandar Thapa, brother of Ritesh, in 2012. During investigation, the receivers told the police that they did not know the sender of the money and handed the amount soon after receiving.
Meanwhile, Sagar Thapa, once of the accused, strongly condemned the statements of ANNFA Vice president Bijaya Narayan Manandhar given to the attorney's office. "It's unbelievable that ANNFA officials blaming, suspecting players like us," Thapa said while exiting from the court. As per the charge-sheet, Manandhar suspected ANNFA president and players for not being serious about improving Nepal's FIFA ranking.
Five footballers, including national team skipper Sagar Thapa, were arrested on October 14 for their alleged involvement in match-fixing during international fixtures.
They were alleged to be acting under monetary inducements from bookies. The other arrestees are national players Sandeep Rai and Ritesh Thapa and two former Nepali internationals Anjan KC and Bikash Singh Chhetri. However, another accused, physiotherapist Dejiv Thapa, is suspected to be hiding in the USA. He is found to have received money from Malaysian Citizen Kesavan Pattan on 9th September 2012. The government has chargesheeted him as an absconder.
