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Prabhakar justifies IT raids

Former Test cricketer Manoj Prabhakar, who triggered off the match-fixing controversy in the country, Friday justified the Income Tax raids on cricketers and administrators, saying it is good for the game.

"Now onwards, people should realise that the CBI and IT people are doing their job sincerely to clean the system," Prabhakar said.

On the searches at his own home on Thursday, the all-rounder said: "I have nothing to hide. Nothing to declare."

He said the investigators went to his house at 8 am and during their 12-hour operation went through various papers and documents, and asked questions about some of them.

Prabhakar, who named ace all-rounder Kapil Dev as the man who allegedly offered him money in Colombo in 1994 to under perform in a Singer Cup match against Pakistan, said the IT sleuths asked him about his connections with web site tehelka.com.

"I told them the web site people helped me in my investigations (which resulted in the clandestinely video taped of interviews with cricketers and administrators) and I helped them. There were no financial transactions between me and tehelka," he said.

Prabhakar said no papers or documents were taken away from his home but the investigators told him that he could open his lockers only in their presence.