Hyderabad:An online betting racket on IPL cricket matches was busted in Hyderabad on Wednesday. Seven people were arrested and Rs 11,80,000 cash was seized in this connection, police said. On a tip-off, the sleuths of the Special Operations Team, LB Nagar zone of Rachakonda, conducted a raid at Plot No. 30, Satya Nagar Colony, under the limits of Vanasthalipuram Police Station and busted an IPL cricket betting racket and apprehended seven persons and seized net Rs 11,80,000 and found Rs 31,17,576 in two AXIS Bank & ICICI accounts belonging to main bookie Ch Sai Ram Varma and Kulamdai Swamy. One laptop, nine mobiles and other incriminating material were also recovered from their possession. Besides, Maruthi S-Cross Br. No. TS-07-HV-7309, Honda Activa Br. No. TS-07-HQ-0059 and Hero Glamour Br. No. TS-07-GJ-3089 were recovered.
Police said that during the interrogation, it came to the fore that one of the accused and sub-bookie Tanniru Nagaraju is addicted to betting and earning easy money by organising and accepting cricket bettings in Hyderabad during IPL cricket season. Ch Sai Ram Varma, the main bookie, has appointed sub-bookies like Tanniru Nagaraju in twin cities. Tanniru Nagarju receives cricket betting rates from Ch Sai Ram Varma to his online number and he informs the same to his punters.
He has set up three-line numbers. After completion of the match, Tanniru Nagaraju collects and distributes the winning amounts through one Gundu Kishore, whom he appointed as an accountant. Some of his customers/punters used to send money to various bank accounts through Paytm and Net Banking. Tanniru Nagaraju was earlier arrested by Vanasthalipuram police in a similar case in 2016.
Read:Hyderabad police bust online money racket, 3 held
He confessed that he and his friend Gundu Kishore both have a good experience in running and accepting cricket betting. Tanniru Nagaraju used the services of Gundu Kishore from Machilipatnam for operating online betting for two months and offered to pay Rs 50,000 per month, police said. Tanniru Ashok and Chemmeti Vinod are distant relatives of Tanniru Nagaraju. At the request of Tanniru Nagaraju, they are working as sub-bookies and the entire setup was established at the house of Chemmeti Vinod.
The accused revealed that the bookies arranged telephonic lines using connections and they give line numbers to the punters. The betting starts after the first ball of the first over and goes on till the last ball. It fluctuates depending upon the match. The punters make calls to the bookies while the match is running and place their betting. While placing betting, bookies note down the details of betting and punter and the conversation will also get recorded. After completion of the match, bookies inform their collection agents about the details of the collection and distribution of amount how much amount has to be collected from a particular punter and how much amount has to be given.
Based on that information the collection agents collect the money from losers and distribute the money to winners fetching a profit for the bookie. Sometimes punters directly send money to the bookies to their bank accounts using Paytm and Net Banking. The main bookie gives 3% to sub bookies in profits. The above arrests were made under the supervision of Mahesh M Bhagwat, IPS, Commissioner of Police, Rachakonda, G Sudheer Babu, IPS, Additional Commissioner of Police, Rachakonda, Sunpreeth Singh, IPS, Deputy Commissioner of Police, LB Nagar zone, and K Muralidhar, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Special Operations Team, Rachakonda, K Purushotham Reddy, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Vanasthalipuram division, by B Anji Reddy, Inspector of Police, SOT-LB Nagar Zone, K Satyanarayana, Inspector of Police, Vanasthalipuram police station, Sub-Inspectors Md. Thakiuddin, AA Raju, K Prathap Reddy and staff of SOT, LB Nagar zone, Rachakonda.
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