The city police arrested six persons, including three senior citizens, on the charge of collecting money under the pretext of betting on horse races here on Monday.
Following complaints from the public, Inspector General and Commissioner of Police P. Kannappan directed the police to register a case. Special teams kept surveillance on the movements of the suspects.
According to police sources, Ramanathan of Lourdu Nagar, K. Pudur (now absconding), and his accomplices — Balan (75) of South Masi Street and Moorthy (62) of Ponnagaram — had hired a premises in Mela Hanumantharayar Street. They had been collecting meagre sums of just Rs. 5 to Rs. 50 from each person claiming to give high returns through betting on horse races at Guindy, Chennai, and Kolkata. A large number of people turned up to try their luck with them.
To instil confidence in the people and to create an impression that there were high returns, the gang gave Rs. 200 and Rs. 400 as returns from the betting to persons who had “invested” just Rs. 50 and Rs. 100 respectively. As word spread, many started queuing up at their place to join the betting and reap riches.
The special teams, which gathered details, realised that the gang had deceived the people their money was meant for betting on horses which was actually not the case.
Initial investigations suggested that the gang members had allegedly planned to convince people in smaller groups first and then increase the stakes from Rs. 5 to Rs. 500 and even higher when more and more people evinced interest, an investigating officer said.
The names of the arrested persons, apart from Moorthy and Balan, were given as Jayapal (55) of Kamarajapuram, Subburam (50) of Kakka Thoppu, Athmarangan (72) of Lakshmipuram and Balachandran (42) of Perumal Teppakulam. A sum of Rs. 4,640 in cash was seized from them. A search was on to secure Ramanathan.
