In a major catch, the North Zone police arrested a 13-member cricket betting gang, which allegedly has links with the neighbouring States and some foreign countries.
Kingpin of the gang Pothula Purnachandra Rao, a history-sheeter, and six bookies were arrested earlier on similar charges, said Police Commissioner D. Gautam Sawang. The police seized 24 mobile phones, a laptop and ₹9,800 cash from them.
An engineering student Gurram Teju of Satyanarayanapuram in the city, who was allegedly addicted to cricket betting, reportedly committed suicide by jumping into the sea at Visakhapatnam recently, as he suffered huge losses. He was pursuing final B. Tech in Koneru Lakshmaiah University (KLU), the Commissioner said.
Mr. Sawang said Purnachandra Rao was operating a website for cricket betting, and created many bookies, through which money was collected from punters.
The accused were doing regular online betting through the main bookies, who were watching from the ground and other bookies through some Apps ‘cricket mazaa’, ‘crick buzz’, ‘cricket live line’ and many others.
Joint Commissioner of Police B.V. Ramana Kumar said the arrested include V. Pandu, M. Durga Prasad, and sub-bookies A. Pundari Kakshaiah, Shaik Ali Jaan, Y Srinivas, S. Trinadh, P Raju, K. Lakshman, P. Srinivas, V. Kalyan Chakravarthy, Md. Imran and P. Jagadish Anand, all natives of the city.
“We suspect that Purnachandra Rao, who was involved with the cricket betting mafia for the last eight years, visited China, Malaysia and other countries and has links with foreign bookies. The accused are chronic ganja peddlers and we are trying to find out the suppliers of the contraband”, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) T.K. Rana.
