3 held for betting in Tamil Nadu Premier League matches

Photo: @TNPL

New Delhi: Three persons, including the brother of a man held for betting in IPL by the ED in 2015, have been arrested for allegedly placing bets on matches of Tamil Nadu Premier League, the Delhi Police said.

The betting amount had reached close to Rs four crore, they said.

Vinod Sharma, Vikas Choudhary and Mukesh Agrawal were arrested from Anand Vihar on Friday, the police said.

On the basis of a tip-off, a raid was conducted at a home and the three men were found betting, the police said.

Thirteen cell phones, two laptops, three LCDs and TV sets have been seized.

The betting was happening on a match of Karaikudi vs Ruby of Tamil Nadu Premier League, said Madhur Verma, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime).

All voice calls of customers were recorded automatically on cell phones and laptops through recording software, said the officer.

The accused were using betting software to maintain their accounts and records. The software exists for a year and the whole data is saved automatically.

They also used to maintain their customer details in the software. They used betting apps and surfed on websites like www.bet365.com, www.betfair.com among others for checking the rates of matches and the chances of a team's win, he said.

Police said that Sharma is the brother of Mukesh Sharma, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under relevant sections of PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) in 2015 based on allegations of operating a UK-based betting website and subsequently placing bets on the IPL matches.

Mukesh was arrested during ED's raids in connection with an alleged Rs 4,000-crore money-laundering case against syndicates involved in placing bets on IPL T-20 cricket matches.