Mumbai cops take custody of bookie Paresh Bhatia

Mumbai police have taken custody of alleged bookie Paresh  Bhatia after he was released on bail in Goa, where he had been arrested by the local police for allegedly playing a role in the cricket betting racket.

Goa Police last week claimed that they had recovered 46 mobile phones from Bhatia, whose name cropped up in the IPL scandal as a “key bets collector” for another alleged bookie, Ramesh Vyas.

Mumbai Police suspect that Bhatia is one of the conduits who took bets from IPL team Chennai Super Kings’ former “honorary member” Gurunath Meiyappan and actor Vindoo Dara Singh Rancheria — both of whom are in custody on charges of gambling — and then placed it with Vyas.

Seeking Bhatia's custody, the public pleader told the court that investigators want to question all the three — Bhatia, Vindoo and Meiyappan — together so that the pattern of placing bets becomes clearer.

Moreover, investigators also suspect that Bhatia “is one the persons who has deep knowledge of the shadowy money trail in the world of betting”.