After a week of strong questioning by the Mumbai police, an arrest was made. They arrested Tarannum Khan, a dance bar girl, as well as two bookies on the charge of criminal conspiracy and gambling. Finally the Mumbai police can rest clear.
Police for the first time involved the Information Technology (IT) Act in their investigation of the case. Some say it was a misuse against Tarannum, Pradip Parmar and Milind Dhiraj Nandu, the arrested parties. The people were arrested at the end of the week. Tarannum didn’t go down as quietly as the others did.
Tarannum was ready to go to the media to tell her story, and where the police stood in this case. In a television interview she admitted to have had gambled before from time to time. She additionally said that she believes that the police tracked her down because she has some connections to Sri Lankan cricketers. She claims, like others do, say that investigators wanted to know if she had any connections to match-fixing.
A local court remanded Tarannum Khan and the bookies for the involvement, to police custody until September 26. The court rejected the suspects claim for bail. The police need to probe more, and can’t do that if the suspects are around compromising the investigation.
Police officials refused to comment on the IPC provision. They do not want to say if it was part of criminal conspiracy. It was a first time for the usage such a process; no one could have known which direction it would have gone. Tarannum Khan had had some problems with the law previously, and that is what led the police to her plain and simple.
Tarannum Khan was part of an income tax fraud case, where it was revealed large cash and property investments were being misused. Police took over the investigation after they found telephone numbers of bookies, in Tarannum's private items. They also found names and numbers of Sri Lankan cricketers in her cellular phone. This was all following Tarannum admission to being associated with the betting business. |
