Cyberabad police busted an online IPL cricket betting racket and arrested 10 bookies. The arrests were made during a raid on a house in Bachupally on Monday, during the IPL match between RCB and Lucknow Supergiants.
Cash and equipment seized in house raid
Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Ravindra told media persons that the SOT Balanagar Zone and Bachupally teams of the Cyberabad Police Commissionerate had been watching the illegal activity of cricket betting rackets. On credible information, they jointly raided a house at Sai Anurag Colony in Bachupally.
He said 10 bookies were arrested and cash worth Rs 60.39 lakh was seized. He said that along with the amount in the bank accounts of the arrested, value of online cash and seized property, the total value of the case property is about Rs 1 crore.
The seized property includes three line boards, eight laptops, three TVs, eight keypad phones, two CPUs, keyboards, a monitor set-top box, headsets, WiFi routers, a printer, microphones, 10 smart phones and three two-wheelers.
The bookies were booked under sections 3 and 4 of TS Gaming Act.
Accused all hail from Andhra Pradesh
Pandu, the main organiser who resides in Vijayawada, is currently absconding. Four of the arrested men are from Andhra Pradesh, while the remaining are also from that state.
The arrested men are Y. Venkata Shivarama Krishna, Singmaneni Kiran Kumar, Nandam Srinivas Babu, Kadiyala Mahesh, Chereddy Kasi, Addepalli Prathap Gana Kumar, K. Vijay Kumar, G. Srikanth, A. Vinay, and B. Venkata Ratna Kumar.
The police said due to digitalisation and the lure of making quick bucks, some people have been lured into cricket betting. This is a vicious cycle that leads to a constant addiction to betting money. Ultimately, the bookie only makes money while punters lose money.
There is scope for cyber theft of data from bank accounts and other personal data, which may result in unauthorized money transfers and blackmail using personal photos, data, etc, it said.
