Cricket Association of Uttarakhand officials quizzed over extortion allegations

The officials of the Cricket Association of Uttarakhand (CAU) have come under the scanner of the law agencies after the father of a former U-19 cricketer levelled charges of extortion and death threats against them.

The police acting upon the complaint has quizzed three CAU officials: Secretary Mahim Verma, head coach Manish Jha, and spokesperson Sanjay Gusain.

An FIR was filed by Virendra Sethi, father of former U-19 cricketer at the Vasant Vihar Police station in Dehradun, regarding his son being threatened by team manager Navneet Mishra and video analyst Piyush Raghuvanshi.

The said incident took place during the Vijay Hazare tournament last year.

SSP Dehradun Police, Mr Janmejaya Khanduri, confirmed that the statements of the alleged perpetrators have been recorded, and they might be recalled again for further investigations.

"For the past three days, we have called Mahim Verma, Manish Jha and Sanjay Gusain separately. We have interrogated them. We have taken their statements. If needed, it will be done again," Khanduri was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

This is not the first time CAU has been under the scanner

CAU's troubles don't stop here. Players have complained about non-payment of allowances as well.

Robin Bisht, a current player on the State Ranji side, opened up about players not being served food and were forced to order food online from their own pockets during Uttarakhand's quarter-finals match against Mumbai last month.

"We returned to the team hotel and, after our recovery session in the pool, went for lunch. The hotel staff said they were told not to serve us food. When we called the team manager, he replied: 'Order something from Swiggy or Zomato or stay hungry. Ek din khana nahi khaoge toh mar nahi jaoge (If you don’t eat for a day, you won’t die)",said Bisht.

Earlier, local MLA Umesh Kumar asked the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to check the CAU's financial transactions, implying corruption within the organization.