Gibbs: Heat shifts

Mumbai, Oct. 18: After South African cricketer Herschelle Gibbs, it is the turn of a Bombay blasts accused to face a cricket match-fixing investigation.

The Enforcement Directorate today moved an application before special anti-terror court judge Pramod Kode seeking permission to record the statement of Mustafa Dossa alias Mustafa Majnu, one of the 137 accused in the 13-year case.

In its application, the directorate said that based on some fresh information, it required to record the statement of Dossa for his alleged role in fixing matches in a 1999 triangular series. The series featured India, Pakistan and the West Indies.

Dossa is the brother of Mohammed Dossa, a key conspirator in the 1993 serial blasts along with Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon.

While Mohammed Dossa has been declared an absconder, Mustafa was deported from Dubai in March 2003 and has been lodged at the Arthur Road jail since. He has been charged with participating in the blasts conspiracy and facilitating the landing of arms and explosives.

Like gangster Abu Salem and his associate Riyaz Siddiqui, Dossa’s trial in the serial blasts case has been separated from the main trial involving 123 accused, including actor Sanjay Dutt.

The directorate’s counsel, A.A. Naqvi, moved the application before Judge Kode, saying it needed to record Dossa’s statement following orders from the Union home ministry under Section 37 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act and Section 13 (1) of the Income-Tax Act.