HYDERABAD: With the IPL season in full swing, sleuths of the Cyberabad SOT have been continuously nabbing online cricket betting gangs over the past few weeks. During the weekend alone, the SOT nabbed five gangs, apprehended 15 members and seized Rs 2.41 crore from them.
“We have also traced 80 bank accounts related to these gangs and have requested freezing of the money,” said Cyberabad SOT DCP Srinivas and added, “I suspect these accounts would have over Rs 10 crore.”
In five separate cases, the SOTs of Shamshabad, Balanagar and Madhapur, with the law and order police cracked down on organisers, bookies and punters across Cyberabad limits.
In one of the cases, the officers seized Rs 79 lakh and clamped down on five online betting apps. They arrested one Pondhuri Suresh, and found that he organised betting under the main organiser Ramanjaneyulu for three years and roped in 350 punters who invested around Rs 4.5 crore.
In Balanagar, five bookies were held and the police seized over Rs 14 lakh from two different gangs. In Dundigal, the SOT arrested four persons and cracked down on an app that had gathered 19 punters in the last month alone.
While nabbing a gang in Miyapur, the SOT realised that the main organisers, who are currently absconding, are operating from Bengaluru and Dubai.
The DCP shared that currently, the bank accounts that these organisers have used for transactions on betting are being frozen. “However, we will look into the possibility of issuing notices to the absconding persons,” said Cyberabad CP Avinash Mohanty.
Speaking about the money involved in online cricket betting, Mohanty admitted, “The amount of transactions would definitely be around 10 to 30 times more than what we have seized.”
The police have requested the public to dial 100 or inform the Cyberabad police on the WhatsApp number 9490617444, in case one has any information regarding online cricket betting gangs.