Two arrested for accepting ₹14-cr bets on WC matches in Mumbai

On Saturday evening, Shivdeep Lande, deputy commissioner of police, ANC, and his team raided a hotel room in Khetwadi, after receiving information about the racket from a senior police inspector.

The Anti-Narcotic Cell (ANC) of Mumbai crime branch busted a betting racket and arrested two bookies on Saturday for allegedly accepting bets on the New Zealand-West Indies World Cup match from a hotel in Grant Road.

The accused – Vishwas Kishan Takalkar, 51, is a city resident, while Ajay Kantraj, 24, is a resident of Bengaluru. (HT Photo)

During the raid, the officers seized a register, which revealed that the duo had accepted bets of around Rs1 crore every day, amounting to a total of ₹14 crore. The police said the accused were operating from the hotel room for almost 20 days.

“The accused were placing bets since June 12 and had collected approximately ₹14 crore since then,” said a police officer from ANC.

The accused – Vishwas Kishan Takalkar, 51, is a city resident, while Ajay Kantraj, 24, is a resident of Bengaluru.

On Saturday evening, Shivdeep Lande, deputy commissioner of police, ANC, and his team raided a hotel room in Khetwadi, after receiving information about the racket from a senior police inspector.

“During the raid, we found the two accused accepting bets on the phone during the live match. We seized eight mobiles phones worth ₹1.93 lakh, an LCD screen worth ₹25,000 and ₹9,470 from the room,” said Lande.

The police are now on the lookout for the kingpin of the racket. “The duo was linked to a man who fixed the betting rates for players and teams through the phone. We are now trying to trace him,” said a police officer.