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Gujarat village green given IPL sheen to dupe Russian punters, four held
Police arrest four persons for staging fake IPL matches to dupe Russian punters. The T20 league ended in the quarter-final after authorities were alerted
The Gujarat police have broken many cricket betting rackets, but this time had to tackle a case where the accused are not only involved in illegal betting but faked an entire Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament to con punters in Russia. The Mehsana police recently arrested four persons who staged matches in the small village of Vadnagar in Gujarat to dupe punters in Russian cities like Tver, Veronezh and Moscow. The matches were broadcast live over a YouTube channel and bets were accepted via a Telegram channel.
They almost pulled off a perfect job as the “tournament” reached the “quarter-finals” before the police caught up on the racket. The accused had a live set-up and matches. They also engaged a man who mimicked TV commentator Harsha Bhogle. They wore T-shirts of IPL teams like Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans.
One of the accused is an all-rounder who has played professionally in Russia. “He wanted to start a league and was supported by a person in Russia to create a fake league. Police got whiff of it when some of the locals picked to play in different teams got suspicious and approached the police after being instructed when to lose their wicket or ensure their team was defeated,” Achal Tyagi, Mehsana Superintendent of Police, who is heading the investigation, said.
The accused had hired about 20 villagers to play, promising them ₹500 per day. Even “selection interviews” were held to make it appear real. The accused cleared farm land in Molipur village of Vadnagar to turn it into a cricket ground. Halogen lights were set up with commentary and live multi-cam setup. The editing was done in such a way lend the matches authenticity.
“The players wore T-shirts and played two matches a day. For the first innings, the accused let players play as they pleased. In the second innings, they would start giving instructions and manipulate the game. They chose Russia as their target because cricket is not very popular there and it would be difficult for the audience there to make out if it was a fake or real IPL,” Tyagi said.
Even crowd noise was downloaded from the internet to provide the ambience of an IPL game. The fake league appeared to be for betting only and catered specifically to the Russian market, he said. The accused have also received ₹3-4 lakh and police are looking for the mastermind based out of Russia who arranged the money.
