Delhi Police bust betting syndicate

The Delhi Police busted another betting syndicate, this time operating during the Sri Lanka-New Zealand match played in Colombo on Tuesday, with the arrest of two people in southeast Delhi.

The Delhi Police busted another betting syndicate, this time operating during the Sri Lanka-New Zealand match played in Colombo on Tuesday, with the arrest of two people in southeast Delhi.

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“The racket was operating in Sriniwaspuri during the match on Tuesday and the arrested duo has been identified as Virender Kumar (46) and Pushkar Raj (49). The total amount of bets received from punters during the operation amounted to more than R2 Lakh,” said Virender Singh Chahal, additional commissioner of police (southeast).

“A constable was sent as a decoy customer and was directed to approach the duo and place a bet worth R500 on the match. A team was standing by and moved in on the operation after the decoy gave the go-ahead,” Chahal said.

The police said the rates of the odds between the two playing teams originated from outside India and the bets were taken during the match.

“With these latest arrests, the total number of such rackets smashed by us has gone up to 15 during the ICC World Cup season,” said a senior police officer.

Punters had a busy day managing wildly fluctuating betting rates during the India-Pakistan semi-final being played in Mohali with international bookies claiming that each ball, in absolute betting terms, would be worth a monstrous Rs 8 crore during the encounter.

Sanjay Bhatia, additional deputy commissioner of police (crime) said, “We have at least six to seven teams that have been positioned throughout the Capital to crack down on betting rackets keeping the popularity of the encounter in mind.”