Five Nepali football players including the national team skipper have been arrested for their alleged involvement in match fixing.
Besides skipper Sagar Thapak, Nepal Police yesterday arrested Sandeep Rai, Ritesh Thapa, Anjan KC And Bikash Singh Chhetri for fixing even international matches on different occasions, according to the police.
According to Sarvendra Nath Khanal, Senior Superintendent of Police and chief of Metropolitan Crime Division, Kathmandu of the Nepal Police, Thapa and KC are the key players involved in the organised match fixing.
These players go through their agents and throw away matches and manipulate results with certain goal margins as per their agreements with the bookies, the senior police officer said divulging their modus operandi.
Police had launched investigation after finding suspicious transactions of money in their bank accounts and a dramatic change in their lifestyle, the police said.
The players were under police surveillance for the last one month after the police noticed suspicious transactions in their bank accounts. The players are found to have defeated the Nepalese team while playing tournament against foreign team by getting million of rupees through match fixing.
Anjan, one of the players, has revealed to the police during probe that he has invested money in different casinos in Sikkim, India.
If the charges against the five footballers are proved, they will be sentenced to jail and fined, besides getting disqualified from playing any match in the future, the police officer said.
