Berhampur: Berhampur police got a major breakthrough in cracking the online IPL cricket betting racket by arresting its kingpin from Kolkata, police said Friday.
Addressing media here, Berhampur SP Pinak Mishra said the accused was identified as Dinesh Kumar Rathi (46). He was the stockist and had many distributors or business agents while some of whom had been arrested by Berhampur police in October last year.
The distributors created panels, or IDs and passwords, after receiving administrator rights from betting sites and used to distribute them down the line. Dinesh, a businessman in Kolkata, had been under the scanner of Berhampur Police.
After efforts of nearly five months, a special team of Gosaninuagoan IIC and Cyber Cell Inspector raided Sovaram Basak Street under Posta Police Station in Kolkata and arrested him.
Police produced Dinesh before the court of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Kolkata, which allowed the police to take him on a five-day transit remand.
The SP said the police are now investigating Dinesh’s criminal antecedents. A laptop and other electronic gadgets seized from his possession will be sent for forensic analysis. Several bank accounts of Dinesh having a deposit of Rs 72.96 lakh were frozen.
Meanwhile, police will forward him to court and seek his remand. Earlier, five distributors namely R Lali Acharya, K Prashant Kumar Subudhi, Vishal Agarwal, Ajaya Kumar Panda, Sanjit Kumar Behera and one seller Ajit Kumar Barada alias Badal had been arrested.
Rs 30 lakh cash, mobile phones, SIM cards, ATM cards, PAN cards, vehicles and screenshots from the mobile phone handset used for facilitating online IPL betting were seized. Several bank accounts having deposit of Rs 5,29,26,499.69 had also been frozen.
PNN