HYDERABAD: Ahead of the first match of Sunrisers Hyderabad in the present season of IPL T20 Cricket league, to be held in Hyderabad on Monday, the city police has nabbed a gang of nine persons running a betting racket from a chicken centre in Bhongir. The match between Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab was underway when the Rachakonda Special Operations Team’s sleuths busted the gang and nabbed the accused.
The cops seized Rs 54,700 in cash, a laptop, WiFi router, a television, a car and five bikes from the members of the gang. The police have found that the accused were betting in the ratio of 1:1.3, wherein a person who bets Rs 1,000 would get Rs 1,300 on a win by ‘his’ team.
Such is the betting fever during the IPL season that recently a gang of four was caught in the north zone limits of the city even before the IPL had started. Rs 7.72 lakh cash was seized from the accused.
Keeping in view the previous cases of ‘live-calling’ from stadiums where spectators directly called the bettors on a live-line connection to explain about the ongoing situation in the field, the task force and the special operations teams (SOT) sleuths in the tri-commissionerates of Hyderabad are all set to crack down on such gangs operating in and around the city.
Task force DCP P Radhakishan Rao said, “All the task force teams have been instructed to be alert during the season to apprehend the gangs indulging in betting. Most of the organisers, who were earlier operating from the city, have all left and settled in other states.” The officer added that it would take around six months for the gangs to get trained on operating the racket, as they need to work on improving their network of building loyal sub-agents and punters.
“There could be a few smaller gangs that may be present in the city, but they would also be nabbed,”the DCP claimed.
Meanwhile, the Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said, “The sleuths of special operations team are already working on the information about the betting rackets and apprehended one gang on Sunday. The public can also share information about betting rackets and would be rewarded.”