Crime Branch-CID (CB-CID) officers who busted the IPL betting racket here with the arrest of 10 bookies, including kingpin Kitty alias Uttam C Jain, appear to be dragging their feet on the probe into the involvement of a city-based international hotel chain’s franchisee. The CB-CID, which began cracking down on the betting ring from May 16 with the arrest of six bookies, was in the know about the suspected involvement of hotelier Vikram Aggarwal, who runs Radisson Blu hotel and the Fortune Hotel on Old Mahabalipuram Road.
This they learnt after perusing call records of Kitty who had spoken to Vikram on numerous occasions. The CB-CID officials, who said the calls were made to the wife of the hotelier, later ascertained that the SIM card was purchased by Vikram on his wife Vandana Aggarwal’s name.
Arrested Bollywood actor and bookie Vindu Dara Singh had also dropped the name of Vikram Aggarwal. Vindu had also told the police that he was introduced to Chennai Super Kings official Gurunath Meiyappan through the hotelier who was a long-time friend of Gurunath. Had the CB-CID began focusing on Vikram earlier, they may have nailed Gurunath ahead of the Mumbai Police.
On their part, CB-CID officials said there could be more than one betting racket and they were concentrating on the one which was cracked here.