IPL betting: Crackdown intensified

With the Delhi police arresting Indian cricket pace bowler S Sreesanth and two other Rajasthan Royals players, apart from a number of bookies, on Thursday on charges of fixing IPL matches, Task Force officials here have intensified raids.

More than 30 bettors have been arrested in the city so far this year and money running in lakhs of rupees has been seized from them.

Though officials claim that big-time bookies in the city have already relocated to bigger havens, P Rameshiah, additional DCP, city Task Force, said, “We have booked 30-odd small-time bookies here and those cases were not linked to the Delhi cases. But we are investigating possible links.”

He said though many bigger rackets have moved to cities like Aurangabad, Mumbai and Pune, there are still many here. “Some of the big groups are functioning from city outskirts and they keep changing their hideouts almost everyday. We will track them soon,” he added.