A team of officials of the Revenue and the Excise departments, led by Deputy Commissioner S. Sasikant Senthil, raided DVR Recreation Club off Raichur-Hyderabad Highway at Yermarus, about 8 km from here, on Saturday night and seized Rs. 7.38 lakh in cash, two-and-a-half cases of liquor worth around Rs. 25,000, a four-wheeler and playing cards allegedly used for gambling.
The police, who were apparently kept uninformed, reached the spot only after the raiding team took control of the premises.
They later took 20 persons into custody on the charge of illegal gambling activities.
Sources said that the district administration had received several complaints against the club for hosting illegal activities, including gambling and serving liquor without permission.
It is learnt that there were over 500 people, most of them from neighbouring Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, when the officials raided the club.
Alerted by the raid, most of them managed to escape in their vehicles. The Raichur Rural Police have registered a case against 20 persons under Section 79 of the Karnataka Police Act, 1963. Excise officials also registered another case against them on the charge of serving/consuming liquor illegally.
“It was a surprise raid based on inputs we collected from different sources on the illegal activities in the club. The club authorities have claimed to have obtained a restraining order from the High Court of Karnataka.
Such orders do not, however, prevent us from raiding the premises to stop illegal activities,” Mr. Senthil told The Hindu .
People from Hyderabad, Mahabubnagar, Kadapa, Kurnool and other districts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana gambled on a regular basis at the club which was opened eight months ago.
