The Delhi High Court on Wednesday reserved till tomorrow its order on a plea by alleged bookie Sanjiv Chawla, challenging a lower court order remanding him in police custody.
The petition was heard by Justice Anu Malhotra, who reserved the order.
Chawla, a key accused in one of cricket’s biggest match-fixing scandals during South Africa’s tour of India in 2000, had moved the high court yesterday, claiming his police custody was “wholly illegal and unlawful”.
Chawla, who was extradited from the UK to India last week, also sought that he be sent to judicial custody as his police remand was allegedly against the terms of the extradition conditions.
He is facing charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Sudhir Kumar Sirohi had on Thursday sent the alleged bookie to police custody.
Delhi Police had requested the ACMM to grant 14 days custodial interrogation of Chawla, saying that he had to be taken to various places to unearth a larger conspiracy.
Chawla is alleged to have played a central role in conspiring with late South African captain Hansie Cronje to fix the South African tour of India in February-March 2000.
He was extradited to India after then British Home Secretary Sajid Javid passed an order to this effect.
Chawla is a Delhi-born businessman who moved to the UK on a business visa in 1996, but continued to make trips to India.
After his Indian passport was revoked in 2000, Chawla was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK in 2003. He obtained a British passport in 2005.