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Warrant out for Chawla

The Delhi court on Monday ordered the arrest of a London-based Indian bookmaker to face trial for his alleged dealings in the South African cricket match-fixing scandal.

Magistrate T. R. Naval issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Sanjay Chawla and ordered federal detectives from the Indian finance ministry to produce him in court on September 21, officials said.

Chawla, the key suspect in the match-fixing scandal which led to the sacking of South African skipper Hansie Cronje, was earlier ordered to appear before magistrate Naval on June 5.

Government prosecutor Subhas Bansal told the court last weekend that Interpol was yet to respond to India's three-month-old request to seek out the fugitive bookmaker in London.

The Indian finance ministry has sought Chawla's return to face questioning in connection with charges that he violated local currency laws to the tune of 400,000 dollars in the match-fixing scandal.

It also seeks details of bank accounts in London and three other cities, saying Chawla and other bookies paid the disgraced South African skipper through these accounts to tank matches against India in March this year.

India and Britain have an extradition treaty which aims to combat terrorism, trans-border drugs trafficking and other international crimes. Delhi police, who are in the forefront of the investigation in the biggest scandal in cricket history, assert that they taped conversations between Cronje and Chawla during the South African tour.

Delhi police, meanwhile, said on Monday they would make a request later this month for taped testimonies and cross-examination reports of Cronje from the Edwin King Commission which is probing the scandal in South Africa.

"India enjoys warm and historic ties with South Africa and hence we expect Pretoria to give us access to the tapes which we intend to use in our prosecution," a senior Delhi Police source said.