Dance bar girl's links to cricket betting investigated

Indian police have visited Dubai to conduct inquiries on the suspected links of a dance bar girl with a high profile Dubai-based Indian businessmen, a Mumbai police source told Gulf News yesterday.

The police were investigating cricket gambling.

Twenty-four-year old Tarannum Khan was arrested in Mumbai under India's Gambling Act on September 14 for alleged links with cricket bookmakers.

She worked as a bar girl in Deepa Bar in Mumbai. On August 29, Income Tax officials raided her posh two-storied bungalow in Mumbai.

"The team is also looking into her connections in Dubai," the Mumbai police source said by telephone. "She had visited Dubai in 1997 for a dance performance." She had apparently made other visits to Dubai.

The source said the investigators also planned to get in touch with the International Cricket Council (ICC) in Dubai in connection with Tarannum's links with cricket bookmakers.

Cricket betting came to light after the South African team's tour of India under the captaincy of Hansie Cronje.

Police found out through tapped mobile conversations with bookies that every stage of a match can be fixed. For example, the bookies can bet on who will win the toss and how much the opening batsman will score. By influencing the players they can tilt the results.

He said the investigating team belonged to the Mumbai police crime branch and were in Dubai to investigate names and telephone numbers found in Tarannum's telephone diary and mobile phone.

There were a few names and telephone numbers of Dubai and Sharjah-based Indian businessmen, he added.

Dubai Police declined comment and the ICC in Dubai also declined to be drawn on the matter.

Manjit Singh, Mumbai Dance Bar Girl Association President, told Gulf News from Mumbai that Tarannum's family were refusing to talk to the media.

"The media is harassing her family members and they are too scared to pick up the telephone I think. People are scared to talk about Tarannum. It's like courting trouble."

Mumbai closed down all dance bars on August 31 after public criticism of their activities. More than 6,000 dance bar girls have suddenly found themselves without a job.

Gulf News got in touch with a couple of them in Mumbai. A dance bar girl named Prema said: "Listen, I do not feel nice asking money from you, but if you need any information about Tarannum you will have to pay. We too need to survive."

When asked the going rate for information on Tarannum, another dance bar girl called Kiran said: "It depends on the questions you ask.

If you want to get in touch with someone from Tarannum's family, it will cost about Rs5,000 (Dh418) to Rs6,000 (Dh500). If you want to get contact numbers of the places she worked in, other than Deepa Bar, it would cost you Rs1,000 (Dh83)."