E-Paper
Betting racket bust: Technology, big money and a code language
First the domestic T20 tournament and now the ICC Champions Trophy - the betting racket busted on Friday night continued to do brisk business even though the now infamous T20 tournament ended in the last week of May.
First the domestic T20 tournament and now the ICC Champions Trophy - the betting racket busted on Friday night continued to do brisk business even though the now infamous T20 tournament ended in the last week of May.
Pawan Kumar alias Sunny and Antarpreet, who were arrested from a New Shivpuri house for allegedly accepting bets on Friday's cricket match between Pakistan and West Indies, have reportedly revealed that they accepted bets from a mere Rs 1,000 to a whopping Rs 1 lakh.
The accused had allegedly fallen back on technology to calculate the bets placed by their customers and also used it to settle accounts. They reportedly used a computer software to place the bets. However, not much information is available about the software use by them and the police are probing into how they operated it.
Assistant commissioner of police (ACP) (Ludhiana north) J Elanchezhian said Pawan and Sanjay, an accused who had managed to escape during the police raid on Friday, were partners. They were operating from Nishant's house. He is also at large and was an equal stake holder in the racket. Antarpreet used to receive calls for them and entered the bets in diaries and the laptop. He used to get 5 percent of the earnings.
The accused used to accept bets from 50 persons for one match. Police also suspect that the accused used to accept bets on the domestic T20 tournament too, but were never caught.
Inspector Dharampal, the SHO of Salem Tabri police station, said only Sanjay alias Chidi had a criminal record. He was earlier booked by the police under the Gambling Act. Police are looking into the antecedents of the others too. The SHO said the police were trying to decode the language they had written in their diaries.
HOW THEY OPERATED
Betting amount
minimum Rs 1,000
Maximum Rs 1 lakh
Total bets they accepted for a match 50
