HYDERABAD: In a major catch, the Rachakonda and Hyderabad police busted cricket betting gangs and arrested around 25 persons for accepting amount from punters during the ongoing IPL cricket matches.
Police have seized `13 lakh cash, laptops, mobile phones and other materials from the accused. In Rachakonda limits, the Special Operation Team (SOT) police carried out raids on several places and arrested 18 persons from various places.
The Rachakonda Joint Police Commissioner Tarun Joshi said that the SOT police busted three betting gangs who were operating in Vanasthalipuram and Uppal. Initially, 13 persons including organisers were nabbed and `2,66,450 and 15 mobile phones were seized.
In Vanasthalipuram, an accused bookie Kiran is absconding. Arrested persons are – Sambasiva Rao, 38, Assistant bookie, Vattikonda Venkata Krishna Rao, Punter and Haradi Ganapathi, also a punter. Kiran with the assistance of Sambasiva Rao organised betting during the IPL matches. Similarly, police also carried out raids on a betting gang in Vanasthalipuram and nabbed six persons including a bookie, betting house organiser and computer operator.
In Uppal police limits, the SOT police have arrested six persons for betting. Police seized cash and laptops from the accused. The Hyderabad Task Force police arrested eight persons including a marine engineering student and seized `10.80 lakh cash from them. The arrested persons are - Rajender Reddy, S Srikanth, Sai Kumar, Bhaskar, Mahender, Sravan Kumar, Krishna and Nagesh at Parsigutta, Musheerabad.]
The prime accused Rajender Reddy confessed that about two years ago, he befriended a bookie Gajanand of Karwang. Then, they contacted a bookie Lucky Gaja of Hyderabad. He used to send a WhatsApp message to both of them during the match.
On getting the message, the accused began accepting bets, passing the same ratio/figure to them. The accused set up a unit with three lines in their phones, one LED monitor and one laptop and accepted bets.