Nine bookies arrested in hotel raid at pydhonie

A hotel was raided on Saturday night and nine bookies were arrested while they were allegedly about to accept bets for the India-Sri Lanka ICC World Cup final match.

A hotel was raided on Saturday night and nine bookies were arrested while they were allegedly about to accept bets for the India-Sri Lanka ICC World Cup final match.

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The police said they received a tip-off that the bookies, who were at Al Moizeen Hotel in Pydhonie were planning to contact those who were willing to bet on the match. “Once the betting began, we raided their room and arrested them,” said police inspector Gulab More, Pydhonie police station.

The police said following their arrest, the bookies denied they were accepting bets. “They claimed that all of them were friends and they were betting amongst themselves. However, we found 11 mobile phones and a notebook. When we went through the book we found the logs of bets,” said More.

The accused have been arrested under various sections of the Bombay Prevention Of Gambling Act, 1887. The nine accused — Sohail Khan, 21, Arbaaz Dhuru, 20, Mohammad Ali, 21, Mustafa Memon, 20, Ismail Syed, 25, Mohammad Saleem, 19, Sohail Azrab Khan, 19, Fauzan Kadri, 20, and Abu Imran Mansuri, 20 — were granted bail by the magistrate’s court on a surety of Rs 5,000 each.

The police are now trying to trace people who contacted the bookies and were about to place bets.