Minister Kshiti Goswami demanded today that the association between businessman Ashok Todi, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and the Kolkata police, should also come under the purview of the ongoing judicial inquiry into the death of Todi’s son-in-law Rizwanur Rehman.

Meanwhile, Mukherjee’s detractors are claiming that CAB Assistant Secretary Snehashish Ganguly and President Prasun Mukherjee were on the wrong foot of the ICC code of conduct because of their relations with Todi. Todi was investigated in 2004 for his alleged involvement in a cricket betting racket that had seen the arrest of six people who worked under him.

Former CAB assistant secretary Biswarup Dey cited the ICC’s code of conduct which specifies that no cricket administrator can have links with people known to be associated with betting and match-fixing.

Dey told The Indian Express: “Sourav Ganguly’s brother Snehashish admitted he knew Ashok Todi, whose name surfaced in a betting investigation three years ago.” He added: “In 2000, the West Indies board did not induct an official because he had links with the betting world. Similarly, the Sri Lankan board refused membership to an official in 2003 on the same charges. This case is no different.”

To add insult to injury, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday made both Prasun Mukherjee and Snehashish Ganguly party to the Rizwanur case in a petition filed by his mother Kishwar Jahan where she has demanded a CBI probe into her son’s death.

In court, Justice Soumitra Pal allowed Rehman family’s counsel Kalyan Banerjee to serve a copy of the petition to Ganguly. Advocate Banerjee had argued that Ganguly’s name should be included in this petition since he introduced Ashok Todi to the police chief. Banerjee also told the court by intervening into a marriage between two adults, the Kolkata Police had violated the fundamental rights of two human beings, as delineated in Section 21 of the Constitution. He said police officers had asked Rizwanur and Priyanka to part ways even before Ashok Todi lodged a complaint with the police.

Series of meetings at Writers’
There was a flurry of meetings at the Writers’ Buildings on Wednesday when CID Additional Director General Bhupinder Singh arrived to brief top administration officers of the progress made in investigating Rizwanur Rehman’s death. Singh met Chief Secretary Amit Kiran Deb and Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy and is said to have elaborated more on whether police officers tried to break up the marriage between Rizwanur and Priyanka. Later in the afternoon, both Singh and Roy spoke to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Singh told the media: “We spoke on several issues, including Rizwanur’s death. No formal report to the Government has been submitted today. All aspects of the case was discussed. Our investigation is still on,” Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy said, “The CID is empowered to call anyone it thinks can shed light on the death.”