Five players, including three national players -- skipper Sagar Thapa, Sandeep Rai and Ritesh Thapa -- and former internationals Bikash Singh Chhetri and Anjan KC, were to be seen in such discomfiture at Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD), Teku. They were arrested Wednesday on allegations of fixing Nepal's international matches under financial inducements from bookies based in Malaysia and Singapore.
Nepal Police failed to present them before a court within 24 hours of the arrest as the courts are closed for the Dashain festival. According to MPCD chief SSP Sarbendra Khanal, police have stepped up investigations into the match fixings, under the Organized Crime and Money Laundering Prevention Act.
The police investigations come under a sub-clause of the Organized Crime Act pertaining to treason which has a provision of 10 years in jail to life for violating state sovereignty and national unity.
Basis for arrest
The five were arrested after micro analysis of the outcomes of suspicious matches, their financial activities and backgrounds, income sources, contacts with foreign nationals and details of financial transactions obtained from abroad, according to SSP Khanal.
Before the arrests, Police found evidence that Anjan and Sagar were in regular contact with notorious bookies in Singapore and Malaysia and had financial transactions with them.
"Notorious match fixers at the international level such as Wilson Raj Perumal and Titani Periasamy of Singapore, Taman Permata and Kesavan Pattan were in regular contact with Anjan and Sagar. Wilson had even visited Nepal to meet Sagar," Khanal said.
Wilson is notorious for international match fixing and was arrested in 2011 in Finland for fixing five matches of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. According to police, Sagar met with Wilson at Kingsway in 2008.
Anjan was local agent
After investigations over nearly two months, police had concluded that former Nepali international and former Three Star Club coach Anjan was the Nepali agent of the international fixing racket. Though he has been out of the national team for more than six years, he has been receiving money on regular basis from his old contacts. Anjan was with the team in the Philippines during a friendly and in New Delhi during the Nehru Cup, both suspected fixed match. However, he was not part of the team then.
Police also claimed that he underwent dramatic financial improvement in the past couples of years. He also had connections with the late gangster Dinesh Adhikari Chari and had invested in a casino in Sikkim.
Alleged fixed match
According to details unveiled by police, the accised had fixed a 2-2 draw against Afghanistan in the 2008 Merdeka Cup in Malaysia, a match at the Bangladesh SAFF Championship 2009, a 2-0 defeat against Malaysia in a 2011 friendly, a 4-0 defeat against Philippines in a 2011 friendly and a match at the 2014 Incheon Asia Cup.
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