Umesh Goenka, the business partner of Rajasthan Royals owner Raj Kundra, on Wednesday claimed in a court in New Delhi that he was forced to name him in cricket betting on instructions from Delhi Police personnel who had "traumatized" and "physically abused" him in illegal custody for five days, says a report in Deccan Chronicle.
Goenka, whose statement has been recorded as a witness in the case, also said he was forced to name his friend Kundra to save himself from physical torture and from being booked under MCOCA, as threatened by the police.
"Due to threats, torture and extreme fear of consequences on refusing to comply with the dictates of the police, I made the statement before the magistrate. It was not made voluntarily and was given under duress on directions of police," he said.
Meanwhile a report in Calcutta Telegraph says that Goenka made the remarks in an application for retraction of his June 5 statement made before a magistrate in which he had named Kundra in the cricket betting. Additional Sessions Judge Vinay Kumar Khanna heard brief arguments and directed the Special Cell of Delhi Police to file its response.
"Special Cell to file reply with supporting affidavit of its in charge on or before June 14," he said. Goenka said he was not disclosing the truth after the court pulled up the police for invoking MCOCA while giving bail to accused persons in the IPL spot-fixing case.
According to a report in The Times Of India, in his detailed application filed though his counsel Tarun Goomber, he narrated the alleged torture at the hands of Delhi Police. Goenka said that "during the investigating the police had abducted him from his house in Ahmedabad on June 2, illegally detained him and put pressure upon him to make a statement under section 164 CrPC as per their narration/instruction."
He said he was forcibly taken to a hotel by two officials of Special Cell and then flown to Delhi and brought to Special Cell office in Lodhi Colony where he was asked to disclose his and Kundra's involvement in the cricket match betting.
Goenka said that on his saying that neither he nor Kundra was involved in betting, he was put in a lockup and then produced before Special CP. He was not allowed to meet his nephew who had also flown to Delhi. He also said he was then shifted to a hotel in Karol Bagh area and kept in illegal confinement and brought back to Special Cell office on June 3.