Former India Women’s coach Tushar Arothe and 18 others were arrested from a cafe in Vadodara for allegedly betting on an IPL match. The incident happened on Monday night during the match between Delhi Capitals and Kings XI Punjab played at Mohali.
According to the police report, the cafe, located in the posh Alkapuri area of the city, is owned by Arothe and two others, Hemang Patel and Nishchal Shah, were arrested from the spot. However, he was given bail by the police because had been booked for a bailable offence.
“Arothe is a former coach of the Indian women's cricket team. He was among the 19 persons held by our team last night for placing bets during the live telecast of an IPL match between Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Capitals,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Jaydeepsinh Jadeja of Vadodara Crime Branch.
All the accused, including Arothe, Patel and Shah, were booked under sections 4 and 5 of the Gambling Act, the police officer said.
“Arothe and the two other cafe co-owners had installed a large screen in their cafe for live streaming of IPL matches. Others had come to the cafe to place bets using three different mobile applications. The cafe owners gave them user names and passwords to bet on the live IPL match,” said Jadeja.
Arothe, Patel and Shah were in contact with a person named Baba, who used to take bet money from the trio, he said. Baba is still out of the police's reach, Jadeja added.
About Tushar Arothe
Arothe played for Baroda in the domestic circuit. A left-handed batsman and a right-arm off-break bowler, Arothe played 114 First Class matches scoring 6,105 runs with 13 hundreds and 31 half-centuries. He also took 225 wickets with 6 for 53 as his best bowling figure.
Arothe took over the reins of the women's national team in 2017 from Purnima Rao. During Arothe's tenure, the women's team had made it to the finals of the ICC Women's World Cup in 2017, which India lost by nine runs to eventual champions England.