Cops bust hi-tech cricket betting racket

Accused had links with bookies in Delhi; N'gud police arrest six

With the cricket world cup underway, Nanjangud police claim to have busted a hi-tech betting racket, by arresting six bookies. A stake amount of Rs 1.36 lakh, 11 cellphones, one laptop and a voice recorder have been recovered from them.

SP Abhinav Khare told media persons, here, on Friday, the accused are identified as Rakesh alias Pachchi from Mysuru; Madan and Sajil from Nanjangud; and Arun Katkar, Jandul and Manjunath from Konanur in Hassan district. Rakesh is a mobile phone vendor, while Sadil is an engineering student. Arun is a jeweller, owning a shop in Hassan, while Jandul has a diploma in engineering. The others belong to a plebeian background.

Explaining about their modus operandi, the SP said, Rakesh was operating the network from his shop — dealing with mobile phones and accessories on R P Road in Nanjangud.

Following an information, the police personnel raided the shop on March 19 and recovered stake amount of Rs 46,200, six cellphones and gold jewels. Later, the remaining accused were apprehended in Hassan. Stake amount of Rs 90,000, a car, laptop and five cellphones were seized from them.

During interrogation, the accused have revealed that they were bookies accepting bets from different parties in and around Nanjangud. They had established a link with the main bookie in Delhi, the SP said. The SP clarified that the investigation will be extended further to trace the extent of the network.

Arun Katkar and others, who had secured an exclusive software for the purpose, were uploading minute-by-minute details of punters along with their cellphone numbers and the stake amount. While they were accepting bets directly from regular punters, bets from freshers were accepted only through introducers (persons known to bookies). While regulars used to pay advance amount towards bets, freshers had to pay towards the bet everytime.

For record, the bookies were recording the telephonic conversation with the punters. There was no physical contact between the bookie and punters. As and when the day’s business was over, they used to discard the SIM cards.

Though they were accepting bets for all the matches of the ongoing world cup, stakes were high when India was playing. On Thursday too, the stakes were high for India and Bangladesh quarter-final clash (which India won later), with the odds fixed at 20:22. If the odd team Bangladesh won the punters would get more than their stake amount.

As and when the match began, a person in the stadium used to give a live commentary over phone to the lower level bookies. Following the commentary, the bets were accepted right from the toss to every ball bowled up to 50 overs.