ROURKELA: Police on Wednesday arrested two siblings along with four of their associates for their alleged involvement in an organised cricket betting racket and recovered Rs 30.65 lakh cash from them.
The accused are Rohit Bhagat (27) and his brother Pankaj Bhagat (31) of Bondamunda here. Their associates are Sonu Rao (30), Mukesh Sahoo (48), Jitendra Agrawal (42) and Suresh Khemka (56).
DIG (Western Range) Brijesh Rai said specific information was received about massive betting activities on matches of the ongoing T20 Cricket World Cup-2026.
Acting on the information, police conducted raids at various places of Rourkela city and arrested the six accused who were engaged in online gaming activities through ‘Sliver Exchange’ application and also through offline mode.
Apart from Rs 30.65 lakh cash, a Mahindra Thar SUV, two laptops and seven costly mobile phones were seized from them.
Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwani said during interrogation, the accused confessed of luring people to engage in betting to get exponentially high returns and also cheating unsuspecting participants with wrong advice.
The accused siblings along with their associates were performing structured roles of ID procurement, customer handling, financial transactions and operational coordination. They were also involved in circulation of money through Hawala network and using mule bank accounts, he said.
A case under sections 318 (8), 340 (2), 336 (3), 61 (2), 112 (2) of BNS and sections 3, 4 and 5 of OPG Act was registered in the Bondamunda police station. The six accused were produced in court on Thursday evening. Further investigation is underway to dismantle the racket’s network in the region, the SP added.