New Delhi: Bollywood starlet Nupur Mehta on Monday said she will take legal action against a UK newspaper which accused her of being involved in a match fixing ring which allegedly used the actor as a honeytrap to recruit players from countries.
The unsubstantiated 'The Sunday Times' report claimed that last year's World Cup semi-final match between India and Pakistan at Mohali was rigged. The paper carried out a sting operation on a Delhi-based bookie, who claimed that the Indian bookmakers are fixing the results of England county games and international fixtures and they are using a Bollywood actress as a honeytrap to recruit players.
The paper used a poster of the 2005 film Jo Bole So Nihal that starred Mehta along with Sunny Deol and Kamaal Khan. Acknowledging the partially blurred image printed in the paper as hers, a shocked Mehta denied her involvement in match fixing. She told the CNN-IBN that the representation of one of her pictures in the paper was without her permission.
"It was a complete shock. I had no relation to this. The allegations are baseless and for demeaning my personality".
The ICC is said to have launched an inquiry into the report, which suggested that the bookmakers offer thousands of pounds to the players.
"The millions of cricket-mad gamblers in the teeming cities and slums of India are helping to finance something altogether more sinister - the subversion of the sport by a network of match fixers. The jailing of three Pakistan cricketers last year and an English county cricketer last month for conspiring to cheat has done nothing to deter the match-fixers," an extract from the Sunday Times story said.
The story quoted supposedly one of Delhi's most influential bookmakers, Vicky Seth. "(Match fixing) will always carry on in cricket," he said. "There is just so much money involved and it's easy to do as long as people don't talk ... Obviously the big money is to be made in big matches - Test matches, Twenty20s, the IPL (Indian Premier League) and BPL (Bangladeshi Premier League).
The report said Seth, who hides his corrupt gambling behind a legitimate property business, alleged that last year's World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan - one of the biggest matches of recent years - had been rigged.
"Attractive girls are the ideal choice to cosy up to players and to persuade them to work for bookmakers. Players are always surrounded by fans and groupies so nobody suspects a thing when they walk in and out of player's hotel bedrooms.
"Players are always vulnerable to approaches by pretty girls and when they are offered the opportunity to make fortunes for making minor adjustments in their play, it is an irresistible package.
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