BERHAMPUR : Berhampur police on Wednesday arrested five persons for their alleged involvement in IPL betting. Four arrests were made by Town police station and one by Bhanjanagar police station for online gambling.
Police registered cases under sections 297/318(4)/61(2)/3(5) BNS, section 4/5 of Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978, section 4 of Public Gambling Act, and sections 66-C/66-D of the Information Technology Act.
The accused are Brundaban @ Malla Panigrahy(42), Mantu @ Ramakanta Samantara(42), P Santosh Kumar(40), Muralidhar Biswal (40) and Sridhar Sahu. Six mobile phones, three two-wheelers, money transaction details and Rs 70,000 cash were seized from them, said SP Saravanna Vivek M.
The SP said based on allegations of IPL betting, special teams were formed to carry out a search operation. The investigation revealed that the accused were doing gambling using mobile phones and laptops through websites such as Sky Exchange and other similar platforms. Evidence of online money transfers and chats regarding betting on different teams were found from the mobile phones.
Banks have been requested to freeze the accounts of the accused persons. Further investigation is underway to identify other accused and trace the money trail, added the SP.