Hyderabad: 12 arrested in betting racket on IPL matches, Rs 7 lakh seized
Hyderabad: The Special Operations Team Malkajgiri of Rachakonda Police bust a major online betting racket run by Jaipur-based bookies and operated by organisers in the city and other parts of the state on Saturday. Twelve people have been arrested, including the main organiser Chintakindi Saikiran, a HR of a multinational firm, four students and a private bank employee. The gang had been conducting betting on the ongoing IPL matches, said the police. The police also seized Rs 7.05 lakh in cash, along with other material.
Saikiran, along with two assistants CH Srikanth, G Praveen Kumar and a collection agent Paruvelli Anweshwar Rao who works as a HR in an MNC have been running online cricket betting on the IPL XI T20 matches.
Saikiran contacted punters and collected advance amounts from them for betting, the amount ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 1 lakh. He has collected a total of Rs 10 lakh in advance from more than 100 punters in the city.
He also procured SIM cards with fake document proofs and employed Srikanth and Praveen to assist him in operating the racket, for a salary of Rs 20,000 per month. “Anweshwar Rao, hailing from Ramagundam in Peddapally district, let his farmhouse at Jagdevpaet village to the gang to operate betting for punters in Karimnagar district and surrounding areas. He allowed them to use his bank account to receive money from punters for 10 percent profit on the collections,” said Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat.
Before the match begins, Saikiran would contact the Jaipur-based bookies and ask him to connect to the hotline to operate betting, using a code word 'popat'. The lines become operational from the first ball in the game and get disconnected immediately after match.
Three bets were placed; the first on the toss, followed by match scores and then on the final overs, which are usually crucial in any match. “While Saikiran received calls and updated the punters on the bets and the amounts, Srikanth and Praveen updated the details and enter them in spread sheets. He has been in this business for the past three years,” said Mr Bhagwat. Police have recovered cash worth Rs 7.05 lakh, gadgets, a car and other material from their possession.
Kingpin made lakhs per cricket match
Chintakindi Saikiran, 30, a resident of Warasiguda, Secun-derabad, owned a hotel at West Marredpally. Faced with losses, he entered into cricket betting. He learned the techniques in Goa before going into business for himself. He was earning up to Rs 5 lakh per match.
Initially he worked in Goa for a bookie Agarwal based at Mapusa, where he learned the betting techniques and how money is distributed and collected from punters. He worked with Agarwal until the last IPL season, after which he started out on his own. He operated the racket from various locations at Nacharam, Habsiguda and Peddapally districts.
He got access to the hotline through a Jaipur based bookie commonly known as 'Dada'. For connecting the betting lines, Saikiran would pay Rs 3000 per month to Dada and he earned around Rs 5 lakh on each match through betting.
The hotline, which is operated from a suitcase like device, can run around 15 lines simultaneously, through which bookies operating from different locations can contact punters and collect amounts from them based on a ball-to-ball count. The amounts from punters will be transferred into bank accounts of bookies and organisers, which will immediately be withdrawn and distributed as per the bets.
7 persons nabbed for gambling
Two cricket betting rackets were busted and seven men were nabbed by West Zone Task Force police, who also seized Rs 1,72,200 lakhs, one laptop and 16 cell phones from them. The gangs were nabbed while they were running cricket betting in Humayun Nagar and Langer House areas from the known and unknown punters over cell phones.
