Sajid Khan, a Pakistan national, was put on a two-day remand yesterday for questioning in his alleged involvement with match-fixing in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) T20 tournament.
Assistant commissioner of DB (North) Mishuk Chakma told The Daily Star that a Dhaka court granted the remand after the Detective Branch of police produced Sajid, a 35-year-old resident of Karachi, before the court.
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) handed over Sajid to the police on Sunday night after their security unit observed dubious activities of the Pakistani national near the players' enclosure and VIP grandstand of the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on the same evening.
“His (Sajid Khan) activities raised serious concern and that's why he was taken for questioning and later handed over to the law enforcers. Now the police are conducting an investigation and we will lend our full support whenever they want. But right now we are not forming an investigation team,” said BCB's spokesman Jalal Yunus yesterday.
It was learnt that Sajid's mobile phone was seized where bank account number of a Pakistani player (reportedly Nasir Jamshed) and e-mail address of another (reportedly Navedul Hasan) were found and it was also traced that he rang a number in Pakistan continuously during the match on Sunday.
BCB's security team kept vigilance on Sajid from Chittagong where his suspicious movements reinforced their watch. Finally the BCB security staff captured Sajid in the restricted zone of the stadium where he should not have entered while he was trying to take the mobile number of Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq.
When asked whether the BCB would question Jamshed, Yunus said: "I also learnt that he (Jamshed) faced questions but I'm not sure. On the other hand, we will definitely take action if the police ask us to bar the departure of any player."
An official of the Chittagong franchise, requesting anonymity, told The Daily Star that Sajid had been found talking to some of their foreign players during the tournament, eliciting suspicion after sitting directly on top of the players' dugout and dressing room during the matches held in Mirpur.
In preliminary interrogations, Sajid claimed he is an import-export businessman and was visiting the country for same purposes. But the DB found in his passport that this is his first visit to Bangladesh when he flew in on February 9, the night before the BPL began.
The unprecedented arrest comes just two weeks after Mashrafe Bin Mortaza reported to his franchise that he had been approached by a fellow cricketer regarding potential spot-fixing during the BPL. A four-member inquiry committee formed by the BCB has already submitted their report to the board president.
Spot-fixing became the biggest story in cricket when in 2010, three Pakistani cricketers -- Mohammad Amir, Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif -- were found guilty and punished by the British government as well as the ICC.
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