Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Police have busted a major online cricket betting racket during the Asia Cup tournament, seizing goods worth Rs 50 lakhs used in crime and arresting seven accused from Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, said Ayodhya Nagar police in a press conference on Monday. Bets worth lakhs were placed on the matches played in Asia Cup tournament.
Officials said that acting on a tip-off, police first intercepted two men running betting operations from a car in the Meenal area. Mobile phones, laptops, ATM cards and cash were recovered from them.
Their interrogation led police to a call centre being run from a flat in RRG Township, Bhojpur Road. A raid there resulted in the arrest of five more accused and the seizure of a large cache of betting-related devices.
According the police reports, investigations revealed that the accused obtained betting panels through Instagram and Telegram, received training on apps like the banned Mahadev App, and shifted to the Rudra Diamond portal for betting activities.
Police further said that, they created fake bank accounts and SIM cards, used WhatsApp for coordination, and frequently changed locations sometimes even operating from parked cars to avoid detection. Transactions worth lakhs were carried out in both Indian currency and cryptocurrency (USDT).
In total, police recovered Rs 3.54 lakh in cash, two cars, 40 mobile phones, 80 SIM cards, 177 ATM cards, five laptops, Wi-Fi routers, a currency counting machine, account registers worth around Rs. 1.5 crore and other electronic devices. Around 180 bank accounts used in the racket were identified, and Rs 15 lakh frozen by authorities.
The arrested accused were identified as Arun Verma (28), Digeshwar Prasad Verma (33), Divyanshu Pawar (26), Gopi Manikpuri (23), Ankit Das (23), Tarun Verma (24) and Sunil Verma (35), residents of districts in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Rs 50 lakh worth goods, devices seized
Rs 3.54 lakh in cash
Two cars,
40 mobile phones
80 SIM cards
177 ATM cards
Five laptops,
Wi-Fi routers
Currency counting machine
Account registers worth around Rs 1.5 crore
180 bank accounts used in transactions
Rs 15 lakh frozen
