Perjury charges smells jail-time for disgraced Anurag Thakur

With Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke well and truly ousted from the BCCI top brass, the Supreme Court is set to clear the Indian-based cricket board of all their corruption as well as their shortcomings. However, as far as Anurag Thakur is concerned, it seems quite clear that he is in unchartered waters.

These unchartered waters see him on the brink of being sent to prison for perjury. The perjury charges come following a wrongful affidavit filed by Thakur on the 16th of December 2016.

Thakur lied under oath

It is said that Thakur had lied under oath when he denied the fact that he had requested permission from the ICC to have the Lodha Panel recommendations on cricket reforms amounted to governmental interference.

The Perjury laws in India are quite clear meaning that it is entirely possible that Thakur will spend a substantial amount of time in jail.

Section 191 of the Indian Penal Code defines perjury as “giving false evidence.” “Whoever, being legally bound by an oath or by an express provision of law to state the truth, or being bound by law to make a declaration upon any subject, makes any statement which is false, and which he either knows or be­lieves to be false or does not believe to be true, is said to give false evidence,” it explains.

Section 193 of IPC has provisions for punishment for committing the perjury offence. It says that a person can face jail term, that may extend up to seven years and shall also be liable to fine, if s/he “intentionally” gives false evidence in any stage of a judicial proceeding. This also fabri­cating false evidence to use it at any stage of a judicial proceeding