Hyderabad police on Sunday, October 11, 2020 busted an inter-state gambling racket and arrested 7 people who were accepting bets on IPL 2020 matches taking place in UAE.
The bookies had been accepting bets from punters located in Rajasthan and were using a rented flat in Blossom Chamber at Gachibowl in Hyderabad.
The bookies were identified as Ashok Kumar Chalani, 43, Ganesh Mal Chalani, 47, Pankaj Seth 34, Surender Chalani, Shanti Lal Baid, 40, Beraram Purohit 32, and Manoj Pasman, 35, all hailing from Rajasthan, reported Times of India (October 13, 2020).
The Special Operation Team (SOT), Hyderabad acted on the information received by Rajasthan Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and seized Rs 65,330 cash, 1 betting board, 4 laptops, 2 tablets, 46 mobile phone, 6 landline phone and 1 Samsung TV from the possession of the alleged accused persons.
SOT additional DCP G Sandeep stated that, “Ashok Kumar is the key accused in the online IPL betting racket. On the instructions of his bosses operating from Rajasthan, Ashok, along with other gang members, reached Hyderabad and set up betting system with direct access Rajasthan. Similar sub-lines of the gang members are functioning from Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. The profit and loss of the punters can be seen online through an app. The payments are mostly being done through online transactions”, reported Times of India.
While SOT, Hyderabad was raiding this rented flat, the Rajasthan Police was simultaneously busting several other locations such as Jaipur, Bikaner and Nagaur where the members of the same gang were running betting racket of crores of Rupees.