The police have busted a cricket betting racket at Hosamane locality in Shivamogga on Monday.
A house that belongs to one Ganesh at Hosamane locality from which the alleged racket was operating was raided by the police. Five persons including Ganesh, Lakshminarayan, Giriraj, Vinay and Sadananda have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the betting activities and an amount of Rs 17.72 lakh cash has been seized from them.
According to police, Lakshminarayan, the kingpin of the racket would contact the customers prior to the commencement of ongoing Indian Premier League matches and collect money from them. The police got the tip-off that the accused were planning to disburse the money on Monday that was collected for a match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab held last week, raided the house.
The police have also seized a car, a bike, eight mobile phones and two television sets from the accused. Mallesh, Chethan, Anil and Tayappa who were part of the racket are absconding.
Police have said that, arrested Ganesh was also involved in unauthorised money lending business. The police have seized documents in this connection. A case has been registered with Doddapet police station in this regard.
