Hyderabad: Thirty-six persons were caught by the commissioner’s task force for allegedly gambling at Marriott Hotel in the city on Thursday night. Two EPOS machines of AXIS Bank were seized from them along with Rs 23. 37 lakh cash, mobile phones and liquor bottles.
Three persons —Sanjay Kumar, Rakesh Juneja and Rajinder Nagpal Singh — who are the organisers are absconding. According to the police, the trio had sent text messages to regular participants, inviting them to play the three card game at a room in Marriott Hotel on the occasion of Diwali.
Around 36 businessmen from the city gathered at the hotel and were playing the game when the police raided the place and caught them. Among the arrested persons are Chikoti Praveen Kumar, 48, and Babulal Agarwal, 45.
“The organisers were accepting online payment from the participants. For this purpose, they brought two EPOS machines. Preliminary investigation revealed that the machines were brought from a bank by the organisers and we will approach the bank to get more details,” said C. Shashidhar Raju, additional DCP Task Force.
EPOS machines are provided by banks to establishments for accepting payments through debit or credit cards. “Exact amount will be known only after their bank accounts are verified. We seized 15 receipts,” he said.
“Every participant had to deposit the cash and take the plastic coins for betting on the game. It was done in order to avoid delay in payment or fraud,” said the police. The organisers collected Rs 3,000 from every participant. The police is making efforts to nab the main organisers.
