That's not cricket! Gujarat police bust fake league

The gang took bets from Russia-based bookies by telecasting the matches live on their YouTube channel

Police in north Gujarat's Mehsana district have busted a gang for faking T20 cricket tournaments, reportedly to cheat Russian bookies.

The gang live streamed these matches with elaborate detailing to give the impression of real ones. The police said that all the four accused were sent to judicial custody in the Mehsana sub-jail after their interrogation in custody got over on Monday.

Local police said that the gang had rented a farmland near Masjidvas in Vadnagar taluka, converted it into a cricket ground with a pitch, boundary lines, and halogen lamps, and hired local youths, many of whom are avid crickets fans, for Rs 400 per day.

The gang formed fake teams on the lines of Indian Premier League (IPL) teams such as Chennai Fighters, Gandhinagar Challengers and Palanpur Sports Kings. It gave the players t-shirts of similar colours to make their act look real.

Police inspector, Special Operations Group (SOG), Bhavesh Rathod, told DH that his team had received a specific tip-off about a betting racket involving Russian betters. He said that the main accused, Shoeb Devda, had come up with the idea of conducting live matches and betting with Russians.

"Shoeb had been to Russia, where he learnt about cricket betting from his friend Asif Mohammed, the fifth and wanted accused in the case... After returning from Russia, Shoeb rented the farmland and started organising the matches," police said.

Three other accused have been identified as Kolu Mohammad, Sadiq Davda and Mohammad Sakib. Sakib is originally from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.

The gang was busted on July 7. During their police remand, Rathod told DH that police learnt that the gang had received Rs 3 lakh through a hawala channel from Russia. Rathod said the money came through a courier firm (angadia pedhi) based in Visnagar via Delhi. He said that investigation is on to find out the hawala channel and other accused involved in the case.

So far, the police have seized a cricket kit, halogen lights, generator, video camera, LED TV, laptop, mic, and wireless walkie-talkie, among others, worth over Rs 3.21 lakh.

He said that Shoeb used to hire local cricket aficionados and even farm labourers to play the matches.

In a statement, police have stated that the accused had registered the tournament as "Century Hitters 20-20" on the "CricHeroes" app. These matches were live-streamed on their YouTube channel, "Century Hitters T20." The channel started on June 10 and has 757 subscribers and over 47,000 views as of Monday.

During the live matches on the YouTube channel, police said Asif Mohammed would take bets from Russian bookies.

As part of their modus operandi, during these matches, Sakib Mohammed, would get in touch with Asif through the Telegram app and gave instructions using a walkie-talkie to co-accused Kolu Mohammed and Sadiq Davda, who acted as umpires on the ground to signal the players to hit boundaries or get out.