Police catch ‘mahabharat characters’ for gambling

It was a field day for west Delhi Police when they managed to catch all characters from the epic Mahabharata, who ran a gambling racket at the house of one of the accused. HT reports.

It was a field day for west Delhi Police when they managed to catch all characters from the epic Mahabharata, who ran a gambling racket at the house of one of the accused.

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According to the police, the arrested people took up the names of the characters Mama Shakuni, Duryodhan, Yudhishtir and Arjun, among others, to organise the age-old game of ‘chausar’. The police on Tuesday said they busted a gambling den in west Delhi's Tilak Nagar.

The main accused, who called himself Mama Shakuni, used to organise the board gambling game in Mahabharata style at his residence. “The kingpin, Sudarshan Khatri, thought of a different way of gambling in order to attract gamblers to his den and he chose the Mahabharata style,” V Renganathan, deputy commissioner of police (west), said.

“He even used names from Mahabharata to address other players, who called each other by names such as Duryodhan, Yudhishtir, Arjun, Nakul, Sahdev and Bheem,” he said.

"Khatri even planned to expand his residence into a full-fledged 'den' by giving it the ambience of old royal durbars. He had also planned to start serving liquor and snacks to the participants by servants dressed up in slaves dresses as in ancient days," the officer said.