BHUBANESWAR: Puri police have arrested four persons for their alleged involvement in IPL betting, and seized `25.35 lakh cash from their possession.
The accused, Prasanna Prusty, B Nageswar Rao, Biswanath Lenka and Ramakanta Sahoo, are all natives of Puri district. The cops have frozen another `31.81 lakh from their bank accounts.
Acting on a tip-off regarding IPL betting, Cyber Crime and Economic Offence police conducted a raid near Masani Chandi Temple in Puri town on Tuesday evening, and nabbed the accused.
As per police, several people had gathered there and were involved in betting. While the others managed to flee, police nabbed the four and seized `3 lakh cash along with six mobile phones from them on the spot.
During interrogation, the accused revealed they were engaged in IPL betting through an app. Police conducted searches at Prusty’s house and seized another `22.31 lakh cash, which is suspected to be the proceeds received through IPL betting. Investigation revealed the accused are running the IPL racket since the last several months.
“The four are unemployed. They were collecting the money from the people involved in betting, and transferring the sum to a person whose name they have saved as ‘boss’. Subsequently, points were awarded to the gamblers on the app and this enabled them to engage in betting,” said Puri SP Prateek Singh.
Singh said that Prusty and Sahoo have criminal antecedents. Further investigation is on to nab the others who are part of the betting racket. The SP further warned of stringent action against those found involved in betting during the ongoing IPL.