HYDERABAD: An Excise sub-inspector was among the five people arrested by LB Nagar SOT and Meerpet police on Friday for taking part in an online gambling racket that involved placing bets on horseraces. The sleuths seized Rs 42 lakh from the gamblers during their raid on a rented house in Nandanavanam under Meerpet police station limits.
Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said that among those arrested was 47-year-old Bokka Madhava Reddy, who is an SI in the Excise department. The others arrested were Thirmal Reddy Joji Reddy, Aduri Joseph Reddy, Franklin Koma Reddy and Ramchandra Reddy while one Prathap Reddy is on the run. “Seized records shows that Madhava Reddy has been participating in the illegal betting racket since November 2021,” the officer said. He said that Joji Reddy lost 5 acres and huge sums to gambling on horseraces, but learnt the intricacies of gambling in the process.
In November 2020, when there were no horseraces in the country due to the lockdown, he got to know about an app used to place bets online. He used this app to entice punters to place bets by charging a minimum of Rs 1,000 per race.