IPL betting racket busted, four held in Shastri Nagar

With the arrest of four men, Delhi Police on Friday claimed to have busted a cricket betting syndicate involved in the ongoing Indian Premier League 5.

Jai Prakash, 44, Sandeep Saxena, 42, Manish Sharma, 27, and Narender Kumar, 49, were held when they were operating during Thursday’s match between Pune Warrior India and Deccan Chargers.

They had allegedly collected bets of around Rs 82 lakh.

“The action was taken on a tip-off that a betting syndicate was operational from a house at Shastri Nagar. The information was further developed and a raid was conducted. The match summary report of the total betting till the time of the raid was found to be between Rs 80 and Rs 82 lakh. We also seized 19 mobile phones, a TV, a laptop and 12 calculators among other articles from the house,” said I B Rani, deputy commissioner of police (north).

A case under Delhi Public Gambling Act was registered at Sarai Rohilla police station. During initial investigation, it was found that the house was taken on rent to avoid detection.

“Arrangements were made so that nobody in the locality could sense the presence of the racket. A mobile phone was being used as ‘voice hotline box’ for receiving rates,” said Rani.

“Apart from this, other mobile phones were being used for accepting bets,” Rani added.Police are trying to find out how long the four men have been involved in the betting racket, and if they are part of a larger gang.