The Mumbai crime branch on Tuesday arrested Bollywood actor Vindoo Dara Singh, son of wrestler late Dara Singh, for his alleged links with bookies being probed by the police, such as Pawan Jaipur, Sanjay Jaipur and Jupiter, and for his alleged participation in betting.
On Monday night, the police also arrested Alpesh Bhagwandas Patel, 39, an alleged facilitator of hawala money between the bookies in India, such as Ramesh Vyas arrested by Mumbai police on May 14, and Dubai.
According to sources, Patel was looking after the finances of bookies from Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur and Dubai.
Another person called Prem Taneja was also arrested from the Mumbai International Airport late on Monday night, for allegedly working as a mediator between Singh and the bookies. Taneja, according to the police, was trying to run away to Dubai after the scandal broke out and was stopped at the immigration counter in the international airport and arrested later.
The Mumbai police till now have arrested nine in the betting case.
The police have also seized cash worth Rs. 1.28 crore from Patel, along with two mobile phones and an account book which had details of the money transactions. He used to get 0.25% to 0.5% commission on all the money transactions he made, the police said.
The police have made it clear that they will also probe Vindoo Dara Singh’s presence in the VIP stand of IPL teams. “He had a very easy access to the IPL players and teams. His interrogation will reveal more details about his links in IPL teams. Whether more Bollywood personalities are involved in the case will become clear only after his interrogation,” said an officer.
All three have been sent to police custody till May 24.
