Arrested in 2011 for human trafficking, BCCI pays tainted Jacob Martin one-time grant

New Delhi Accused of spotfixing during IPL2013 tainted cricketers S Sreesanth Ankeet Chavan and AjitChandilas monetary grants have been withheld by the BCCIwhich has applied a different yardstick for anothertainted former India cricketer Jacob MartinMartin was arrested in Delhi on April 27 2011 oncharges of human trafficking after he had a formed a boguscricket team and send one Nimesh Kumar to the United Kingdomby obtaining visa through fraudulent meansHe was later released on bail but the case is stillpending against MartinJacob Martin at New Delhi Police Headquarters after being arrested in connection with a human trafficking case in 2011 PicImtiyaz KhanAccording to BCCIs website where the payment or onetimegrant of former cricketers have been recorded Martins namein the beneficiary list is at No 118 The former Barodarighthander who played 10 ODIs has been paid Rs 30 lakh bythe BCCIMartins payment again came into prominence as at thestart of this month a Delhi Court dismissed his pleachallenging framing of charges against him in that particularcaseOn December 1 2015 the additional Sessions Judge VinodKumar dismissed a revision petition filed by Martin against amagisterial courts order framing charges for alleged offencesof cheating and criminal conspiracy against himEven if the documentary evidence has been weeded out asalready discussed the statements of aforesaid witnesses ofpolice are enough to frame charge against the revisionistMartin What is the worth of these statements can only beseen during the trialHowever I am of the opinion that the Additional ChiefMetropolitan Magistrate has rightly framed the charge againstthe revisionist and I find no infirmity in the impugned orderand the charge the judge said while dismissing his pleaIn fact Martins payment was cleared by the last financecommittee and one of its member said that they had no clueabout Martins arrestLook we were finance committee members It is BCCIsduty to do all the checks amp balances He had played 138firstclass matches and qualified for the payment As far aspolice case is concerned BCCI officials in charge should haveinformed us His payment was passed as no one even raised aquestion a member of the erstwhile finance committee toldPTIIn fact questions are being raised that if Sreesanth andChavan are not being paid for corrupting the game how didMartin get away before clearing his name in the caseThe police had opposed Martins plea in the sessionscourt contending that while framing charges the magisterialcourt had referred to statements of various prosecutionwitnesses which prima facie established that Martin hadfloated a bogus cricket club and obtained visa for coaccusedNimesh Kumar Manubhai as a team memberMartins counsel has told the court that in 2003 hisclient became a part of the Vadodarabased club which touredthe United Kingdom for friendly cricket matches with the localEnglish cricket clubsHe argued that in September 2003 Martin took a team ofcricketers to the UK and Patel was one of the members of theteam The lawyer told the court that Martin had returned toIndia within the validity period of his VISA but later ittranspired that in August 2004 Patel had travelled to Londonand allegedly overstayed there after which he was deportedback to India in December 2004He said that after Patel had returned to the IndiraGandhi International airport here a complaint was lodgedagainst him alleging that the home stamp of UK affixed in hispassport appeared to be counterfeit