Dharamshala: Five persons including two office bearers of Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) were entenced for six months imprisonment after they were held guilty to disrupting a Ranji Trophy match in year 2005 by a local court.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Ajay Mehta also imposed a fine of Rs.1,500 each on the five accused, who were booked under sections of unlawful association, obstruction and causing mischief before the Ranji Trophy match between Himachal Pradesh and Tripura Dec 1, 2005 in the HPCA stadium.
Assistant District Attorney Davinder Chaudhary told IANS that Sanjay Sharma (current HPCA public relations officer), Yudhister Katoch (joint secretary), Gautam Thakur, Aseem Aggarwal, Vipin Mehra and Ashok Kumar were imprisoned.
Mr. Mehta held them guilty on Thursday but pronounced the quantum of sentence yesterday. “The convicts have been given bail and given time to move the higher court till Nov 11,” Chaudhary added.
HPCA is currently headed by Anurag Thakur, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Hamirpur and son of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. As per the prosecution, the match was put off by the match referee after officials of two groups claimed that their respective organization was the HPCA and affiliated with the BCCI.
The then HPCA led by Rajinder Zar produced a letter from the BCCI confirming that the team headed by him was permitted to play in the Ranji Trophy. In retaliation, the office-bearers of the association
led by Thakur allegedly put sprinklers in the outfield. On the complaint of match referee Narender Menon, police had registered the case
