Rourkela: Plant site police in Rourkela busted a high-profile gambling racket and arrested 12 gamblers from a hotel late Friday night, a police source said Saturday.
The cops seized cash amounting to Rs 12 lakh, two cars, five two-wheelers and 15 mobile phones from the possession of the accused persons.
The arrested gamblers were identified as Shubhakant Behera, Saroj Agrawal, Raju Agrawal, Pitar Khes, Lakhan Minj, Dinesh Jaiswal, Paresh Sahu. Sudhir Kedia, Shankarlal Sahu, Dharmendra Sharma, Nagarmal Agrawal and Bijay Behera.
The hotel in the steel city had turned into a gambling den with gamblers visiting it after sunset, a local man said.
The cops were tipped off about the hotel Friday following which a strategy was chalked out to conduct a raid there. The gamblers were arrested during the raid.
Several denizens alleged on conditions of anonymity that there are many such hotels and restaurants that are allowing gambling in their premises. Cops, meanwhile, vowed to intensify raids in days to come.
PNN