Hyderabad: In view of the ongoing IPL-2020 cricket matches, the team of Specia Operation Team (SOT) Balanagar Zone of Cyberabad Police Commissionerate has been collecting information of Cricket betting gangs and individuals indulging in the illegal activity of cricket betting.
As a result, the SOT Balanagar Zone received reliable information that a gang is organizing cricket betting in Basheerabad PS limits and other areas of Hyderabad City.
Basing on the reliable information, on October 4, the team of SOT Balanagar Zone apprehended one bookie and other seven punters at Omkar Opticals, near Suchitra X roads under the limits of Basheerabad PS, while they were indulging in cricket betting and exchanging the money by Online Transactions/Net Banking/Gpay/PhonePay related to cricket betting and seized an amount of Rs. 22,89,400 net cash, froze bank account with Rs. 13,00,000 and eight-cell phones.
Their modus operandi was as follows. The bookies communicated the details of betting through the mobile numbers to interested persons, who after depositing a minimum amount of Rs. 50,000 would get the ratings of the teams. For the ratings, bookies were depending on Cricketline and Cricket Exchange mobile apps. The local bookie Shashank would look after the local contacts with regard to money transfer and liaison with the main bookie who was said to be based in Goa.
The money transfer was mostly done through Internet Banking, Phonepay, Gpay. Cash transactions were routed through Shashank. At the end of the match, the account was settled by Shashank.
