The Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC) of the Mumbai Police on Saturday arrested two people from Grant Road for accepting bets on the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup.
The two accused, Vishwas Takalkar (51) from Mumbai and Ajay Kantraj (24) from Bengaluru, were picked up from Hotel Balwas at Grant Road. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Anti Narcotics Cell), Shivdeep Lande said, “We received preliminary information about the betting from our sources. We caught the accused red-handed while they were betting on the New Zealand vs West Indies match.”
A case has been registered with the D. B. Marg police station. Mr. Lande said they recovered a register from Mr. Takalkar and Mr. Kantraj, which included day-to-day bet entries of the various punters for different matches, totalling up to approximately ₹14 crore.
Authorities are now on the lookout for the kingpin of the racket. “We are investigating to identify the mastermind behind this multi-crore racket, who was providing ball by ball information about the matches to the duo,” Mr. Lande said.
According to the police, material worth approximately ₹3 lakh was seized from the two men. Senior police inspector Suryakant Banger said, “We confiscated eight mobile phones, one LCD television set and around ₹8,000 from the accused.”
The receptionist of Balwas Hotel, Irshad Ali, said the men had been staying in the hotel since May 30, the day the World Cup began. Mr. Ali said, “They had booked a room till June 6, but then they decided to extend their stay.”
The accused have been booked under Sections 4(a) and 5 of the Public Gambling Act for gaming with money illegally and Section 25(c) of the Telegraph Act, 1885, for tampering with telegraphic machinery. “We have begun investigations to find out the background and network of the accused,” Mr. Banger said.
