While continuing to keeping vigil on locals allegedly involved in illegal online betting on cricket matches, the police are collecting evidence against bookies operating from abroad.
“There is a huge money trail. We are collecting evidence leading to bookies operating from foreign land,” said Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil, who initiated a drive against illegal cricket betting on March 25 this year.
So far, the police have registered 10 cases and recovered ₹ 9.04 lakh in cash, 20 mobile phones and a few laptops. “We have succeeded in catching locals involved in the crime and have disrupted the chain used by bookies. We are on a constant vigil and taking action on whatever information we are getting,” Mr. Patil told The Hindu .
A day before the start of the 2019 edition of the India Premier League matches on March 23, Mr. Patil took to twitter to warn people against betting and asked them to share information with the police. Re-tweeting Royal Challengers’ tweet about their first match with Mumbai Indians on March 27, Mr. Patil said that the police were keeping a close watch on cricket betting.
The first case involved the arrest of three persons on March 25 when the police seized ₹ 62,700 in cash and four mobile phones. Nine other cases were booked following raids carried out till the second week of April.
The significant among these raids was the one by Central Crime Branch sleuths on April 8 when they arrested three persons from whom they got information about two bookies operating from Dubai.
A senior police officer said that the bookies were using online betting Apps. The bookies share passwords of the Apps with their local contacts on receipt of money. The local contacts bet on the Apps after collecting money from people.
