Rooms on a particular floor in Radisson Blu hotel in the city were used for elaborate betting operations during the recent IPL tournament, high-profile bookie Kitty alias Uttam Chand now in police custody told interrogators on Wednesday.
Chand was arrested by a Tamil Nadu Crime Branch-CID team that cracked down on a betting syndicate operated in the city by bookies and fixers from Mumbai, shortly after a spot-fixing racket was busted by the Delhi Police. Chand, who was taken into two days’ police custody which ends on Thursday, told investigators that rooms in the luxury hotel were used as an office to run the betting operations, with help from hotelier Vikram Agarwal and others.
Agarwal, suspected to be closely linked to actor-bookie Vindoo Dara Singh, who is now under the Mumbai police custody, introduced him to Chennai Super Kings team principal Gurunath Meiyappan. Agarwal is expected to appear before investigators at the CB-CID office here on Thursday in response to a summons. Around 1.30 p.m. on Wednesday, CB-CID sleuths led by DSP Raja Srinivas, took Chand to his fourth floor office in an apartment complex on V.P. Colony 3 Cross Street at Ayanavaram. He was questioned in the flat and some documents were seized. Residents in adjoining flats said that Chand rented the flat months ago stating he was going to start a trading firm. But many men used to visit the flat in Chand’s presence and hold prolonged discussions. The CB-CID is on the hunt for two brothers of Chand who are absconding after the latter was arrested.