New Delhi: Delhi Police’s Crime Branch busted an interstate cricket betting racket and arrested 11 members who were operating from the city during the ODI between India and Australia at Bangalore, officials said on Monday.
The accused were identified as Amit Arora (48), Anuj Arora (44), Ritesh Bansal (37), Ansul Bansal (27), Naveen Kumar (32), Rohit Sharma (34), Ritesh Aggarwal (38), Rohit Rastogi (34), Aman Gupta (22), Ankush Bansal (38) and Anurag Aggarwal (35), they said. During interrogation, they disclosed that bets worth over rupees five crore had been placed, police said.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) AK Singla said a tip-off was received that a betting racket is operating here and will be active Sunday during the India-Australia ODI.
“Our team raided a house in Ashoka Niketan, Karkardooma, when the match was in progress and apprehended 11 persons,” informed Singla.
Seven laptops, two LCD TVs, four specially designed briefcases and 74 mobile phones were recovered from those apprehended, Singla added. He also said that Amit, a resident of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, is the kingpin of the racket which operates all over India.
Gamblers call on specific numbers given by the gang to place bets. The gang uses specially designed betting software on their laptops to record and calculate bets placed during a match, the officer said.
Amit had arranged for three special phone connections called ‘Tota Lines’, which he had bought from an operator of Delhi. These lines kept repeating the current rates of betting after every ball on a loudspeaker. Amit verbally relayed these rates to all the punters who placed bets with him, the ACP stated.
Bets were placed on the winner of toss, runs, sessions, wickets, final victory etc, he added.
PTI