Police raid ‘gambling den' in Indiranagar after residents raise red flag

A recreation club in eastern Bengaluru’s Indiranagar was raided by police on Saturday evening after local residents complained that it organised large-scale gambling.

The club in question is Phoenix Poker Room, housed on the second floor of a multi-storey building located along Shri Krishna Temple Road in Binnamangala, Indiranagar 1st Stage.

S D Sharanappa, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East), confirmed that the club organised gambling and said a police team was presently conducting mahazar (recreation of the crime scene) there. “We can confirm arrests or cash seizures only after that,” he said.

As the name suggests, the raided place is a poker club. Poker is a game of cards involving money. All forms of gambling, except for horse racing, are banned in Karnataka. The state is also considering banning online gambling.

Residents described the club as a “den of illegal activities” and suggested that the cops cracked down on it only after they escalated the matter to police chief Kamal Pant, CCB chief Sandeep Patil and DCP Sharanappa.

Residents say what alarmed them initially was that every day, at least 15 cars would arrive at the club and over 40 people would get off to go in. They say they alerted the local police but didn’t get a proper response.

A female resident told the police about a specific incident at the club — a woman ushering people in.

The resident says she once caught a man after he landed in a house while trying to escape from the club. The man had descended from the second floor using water pipes. Four others descended in a similar fashion while throwing a wad of cash at their associates, shows a video shot by the residents.

According to residents, it’s not possible that local police didn’t know what was going on inside the club. They suspect the police received bribes from the club and chose not to act.