ELURU: A day after the three-day Sankranti festival, cockfights continued at Koppaka village in Pedavegi mandal of West Godavari district on Wednesday. But police, who stayed away from the village over the last three days, at last, conducted a raid on the arena. Koppaka village in Pedavegi mandal falls in the Denduluru Assembly constituency represented by Government Whip Chintamaneni Prabhakar.The arena arranged in Koppaka was said to be one of the biggest in the district. For the last four days beginning from Bhogi, cockfights and other types of gambling activities were organised with immunity, drawing thousands of punters and gamblers.
However, the police seemed to have ignored media reports about cockfights and other illegal activities organised brazenly in the village. While in other areas, cockfights ceased by Tuesday evening, the arena in Koppaka was busy with activity till late in the night. On Wednesday morning, the punters were back in the village.
District SP M Raviprakash sent a police team to the village on being alerted. Seeing the police, organisers and punters fled. The police were astonished to see the elaborate arrangements made at the cockfight arena. A huge yellow tent erected for seating a large audience around a well laid-out arena showed the boldness with which the organisers held cockfights for the past four days. According to villagers, crores of rupees was wagered on cockfights and liquor flowed like water.