VISAKHAPATNAM: As the IPL 2017 season is coming to an end, the City Task Force (CTF) police on Sunday busted yet another cricket betting racket during a raid on an apartment in MVP Colony on Sunday.
Two members of the gang were arrested and the police seized `1.7 lakh cash and several equipment from the accused.
Just three days ago, the CTF arrested two major gangs from the city while the latter were accepting betting amount online from the punters on the ongoing IPL matches.
The accused have been identified as VV Siva Hemanth (30) and N Bujji Raju (30). The police also seized a multi-level communicator equipment box with 21 betting line mobile phones, a laptop, a LED TV and other allied equipment and cash of `1.74 lakh.
According to CTF assistant commissioner of police I Chittibabu, the gang was into online betting and at the time of the raid as many as 18 punters were online for the T20 match between Rising Pune Super Giants and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The gang was operating the betting from a posh apartment complex near Ushodaya junction in the MVP Colony.
The ACP said that in order to escape from the police, the bookies had been using multi-level communicator equipment box, which is difficult to track. The gang has a team of punters who communicate the betting amount by moving around the city in a high-end car.
“The bookies select their punters very carefully. They do not recruit a person unless a background check is made and accept new ones based on the recommendation of the existing ones. The betting gangs in the city are connected to bigger bookies in cities like Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mumbai and if the betting amount exceeds `1 lakh, the bet is routed through the bigger bookies,” he said. A case have been registered.