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Kangra police finds international links of online betting racket
After getting the tip-off, police conducted raids at some places in Kangra district and besides arresting people involved, police recovered laptops, mobile phones, passbooks, chequebooks and SIM cards
Kangra police have found an international link to an online betting racket that was busted in Kangra in June this year.
Kangra superintendent of police (SP) Shalini Agnihotri said they launched an inquiry into a racket, which led them to Dubai, Cambodia, African countries and Armenia.
“Since the mandate and preview of the case is beyond the capacity of local police, we have submitted a request that the investigation should be taken over by a central agency,” said the SP.
She said, so far, 18 people involved in the racket have been arrested from seven states, including Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab,
“More than 90 bank accounts were investigated and an amount worth ₹94 crore was seized during the investigation,” said Agnihotri, adding that this amount and number of accounts could increase.
Police busted the racket in June this year when a youth from Chamba filed a complaint at Dharamshala police station stating that a person from Baijnath befriended him and got his account opened in a local bank, and made transaction amounting to ₹65 lahk through it.
After getting the tip-off, police conducted raids at some places in Kangra district and besides arresting people involved, police recovered laptops, mobile phones, passbooks, chequebooks and SIM cards.
Subsequent investigation led the police to Mohali, Punjab, where the racket was operating from an office-like setup in two flats.
The ring involved a large number of accounts opened in banks at Dharamshala, Baijnath-Paprola and Mohali. The modus operandi of the racket was that they would get an open account in the name of different persons with or without knowledge of the account holder and keep ATM cards, passbooks and chequebooks with them. They would then carry out transactions worth lakhs through these accounts.
