26 people arrested for betting on IPL match

Twenty six men were arrested from different residential areas of Gurugram late on Saturday evening in police raids for running a betting racket involving an Indian

Twenty six men were arrested from different residential areas of Gurugram late on Saturday evening in police raids for running a betting racket involving an Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket match. Six others managed to escape, said the police. The raids were conducted after the police received a tip-off regarding this online betting racket.

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Since the start of the festival season and the beginning of the IPL tournament, the police have come down heavily on various betting rackets operating in the city. Since the beginning of the tournament last month, separate raids have been conducted at 24 different locations across the city. These include Manesar, Sohna Road, Badshshpur, DLF phases 1 and 4, Palam Vihar, Sushant Lok , South City 1 and 2, and sectors 56, 57, 45, 107, 51 and 69. All the suspects have been booked under relevant sections of the Public Gambling Act.

The alleged bookmakers had been on the police radar since the IPL began on September 19.On Saturday, the crime branch of Gurugram Police received a tip-off about bookmakers, operating from different areas, who had taken bets on a match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). The police formed raiding teams and arrested the suspects, while they were taking bets over the phone during the match. Six mobile phones, a notebook, a laptop and a pen were recovered from their possession.

Preet Pal Sangwan, assistant commissioner of police (crime), said that typically, such betting takes place whenever a domestic or international sports league is underway. This year, the start of several sporting tournaments, which usually take place during the summer months, was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With sports returning to television, networks of illegal betting operations, have once again become operational.

In most cases of betting, the modus operandi is the largely the same, said police officials. Typically during a live match, the suspects are connected to a live line where one of their ‘contacts’ is physically present at the match location. He informs them about the odds over phone. The ‘local’ bookmaker takes bets from the punters — people who place bets. There is an entire chain of bookmakers who communicate over the phone. The odds keep changing as the match progresses.

Sangwan said, “We are cracking down on all such illegal operations and more arrests are likely. The probe so far has found that these bookmakers take bets on all such sporting activities. They mostly use encrypted communication and have contact with fellow bookmakers at different locations. We are trying to crackdown on the whole network.”

“Since betting is a bailable offence, several accused return to gambling after they are released. It is yet to be established if the accused in these 10 cases have a common link or they were running independent operations. Ten separate FIRs have been registered at respective police stations,” said Sangwan.