Cricket Betting Racket Busted In Hyderabad, 10 Arrested

Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Ravindra said 10 bookies were arrested and cash worth Rs 60.39 lakh was seized.

Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Ravindra

The Cyberabad Special Operation Team team busted an online IPL cricket betting racket and caught 10 people. The police seized property that included three line boards, eight laptops, three TVs, two CPUs, keyboards, a monitor set-top box,eight keypad phones, headsets, WiFi routers, printers, microphones, Ten smart phones, and three two-wheelers.

 According to an IANS report, the arrests were made during a raid on a house in Bachupally on Monday, during the IPL match between RCB and Lucknow SuperGiants.

Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Ravindra told media persons that the SOT Balanagar Zone and Bachupally squad of the Cyberabad Police Commissionerate have been keeping an eye on the criminal activity of cricket betting rackets. They conducted a coordinated raid on a home in Bachupally's Sai Anurag Colony based on reliable information.

 Ravindra said 10 bookies were arrested and cash worth Rs 60.39 lakh was seized. He said that along with the amount in the bank accounts of the arrested, value of online cash and seized property, the total value of the case property is about Rs 1 crore.The bookies were booked under sections 3 and 4 of the TS Gaming Act.

 Pandu, the main organiser, who is a resident of Vijayawada, is absconding. Four of the arrested men are from Andhra Pradesh, while the remaining are all residents of the state. The arrested men are Y. Venkata Shivarama Krishna, Nandam Srinivas Babu,Singmaneni Kiran Kumar, Kadiyala Mahesh, Addepalli Prathap Gana Kumar,Chereddy Kasi, K. Vijay Kumar, G. Srikanth, A. Vinay, and B. Venkata Ratna Kumar.

 The police said due to digitalisation and the chance to make quick bucks, some people have been lured into cricket betting. This is a vicious cycle that leads to a constant addiction to betting money. Ultimately, the bookie only makes money while punters lose money.

There is scope for cyber theft of data from bank accounts and other personal data, which may result in unauthorised money transfers and blackmail using personal photos, data, etc., the police said.