Thursday, March 3 2005 15:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Goa Gutka owner Jagdish Joshi today (Mar 3, 2005) appeared before the CBI at New Delhi, in connection with the case of alleged nexus with the underworld and is likely to undergo a lie detector test.

Dodging the media, the CBI took Joshi to its office in South Delhi, where he was being questioned by the sleuths of Special Crime Branch of the agency.

Joshi has denied that he had ever visited Karachi or met underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, who has been declared by the US State Department as 'global terrorist', CBI sources said.

The sources claimed that the gutka baron had agreed for a lie detector test.

Joshi had earlier been quizzed by the CBI in a gruelling seven-hour-session in Mumbai on February 25.

The investigating agency had then indicated that it might question Joshi for some more days before deciding to take him into custody.

Joshi arrived from UAE on February 23 and moved the Bombay High Court the next day, urging for extension of stay on non-bailable warrant against him. The Court rejected his plea and gave CBI a free hand to deal with him in any manner.

The gutka baron had earlier moved the High Court praying for quashing of non-bailable warrant issued by the lower court. He also gave an undertaking to appear before CBI on February 25.

A special court had issued non-bailable warrant against him on a plea made by Mumbai police for his failure to appear before it in a case of alleged nexus with underworld. Later, the case was transferred to CBI for probe.

Police summoned him and along with another gutka king Rasiklal Manikchand Dhariwal for questioning after an accused Jamiruddin Kalia alias Jumbo spilled the beans alleging the duo had links with Pakistan-based don Dawood Ibrahim and his brother Anees and had exported machinery to Pakistan en-route Dubai to help underworld establish gutka business in Pakistan.