Cricket board officials covered up forgery: GCA member

PANAJI - Senior Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) officials colluded with Goa Cricket Association (GCA) president Dayanand Narvekar in a forgery case involving his son, a senior GCA member claimed Saturday.

He alleged that Narvekar forged his son Ganeshrajs birth certificate four times to ensure that he plays in under-15 cricket tournaments.

At a press conference here, Dr Shekhar Salkar, who Friday filed an FIR against the former BCCI vice president and others for forgery and cheating, also said that Narvekar had misused his senior BCCI position to ensure that his son played in the state squad.

Of course, the BCCI officials in office then are responsible for the mess. Even after spotting the forgery, they only let Narvekar off with a Rs.5,000 fine. They should have taken criminal action. They have deprived other budding cricketers from Goa of legitimate opportunities, Salkar said.

Dayanand Narvekar is a sitting Congress legislator from the Aldona constituency and has been the deputy chief minister of the state. He is also one of the main accused in a multi-million-rupee fake ticket scam for an India-Australia One-day International match in 2001.

In the FIR, Narvekar, his wife Sushma, son Ganeshraj and Dr Ravindra Chodankar have been named as accused in the forgery and cheating complaint filed at the Mapusa police station.

Salkar has alleged in his complaint that Ganeshraj, who played for Goa from 2005 to 2007 for the south zone in the under-15 category, was allowed to play in the third year too after forging the certificate and changing his name from Ganeshraj to Anish, which was his nickname, and changing his age.

The complaint was filed 45 days back and has now been registered under sections 420 (cheating), 471 (forgery) and 120 (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, a police official said.

The complainant has provided both birth certificates, which he claimed had been sourced under the Right to Information Act, the official said.

The original certificate says that the boys birthdate is Feb 28, 1993, while the forged certificate shows his birthday as Sept 1, 1993, Dr Salkar said, adding that the birth certificate had been forged four times.

Yet another document that the police are tracking down is a forged birth certificate issued by a hospital owned by Narvekars kin Ravindra Chodankar.

— Indo Asian News Service