IPL betting racket busted in Vanasthalipuram; cash, accounts worth Rs. 1.20 cr seized

Hyderabad: The Rachakonda police busted an online cricket betting racket and arrested five persons. They also seized Rs. 12.50 lakh cash, Rs. 96.78 lakh in eight various bank accounts, and other items – all worth Rs. 1.20 crore.

On a tip-off, the special operations team, LB Nagar zone, raided Lotus Apartment in Green Meadows, Auto Nagar, under the limits of Vanasthalipuram police station and busted an IPL cricket betting racket. They arrested the main organiser Devineni Chakravarthy (50), Vemulaparthy Harish (35), Chenreddy Suresh Reddy (52), Saama Jaipal Reddy (42), and Shaik Asif Pasha (35). Two others – Appala Raju and Nidadavolu Srinivasa Uday Kumar – are absconding.

Devineni Chakravarthy is a realtor who is running the betting racket from his brother-in-law's house at Mugguaulla under Seetha Nagaram mandal in East Godavari under Appala Raju's name. He was accepting bets through his brother-in-law Nidadavolu Srinivasa Uday Kumar and also redirecting the customers and punters to the latter. To misguide the police, he had opened two current accounts in the name of Sri Venkateshwara Traders and Sri Lalitha Durga Traders. The same account numbers were distributed to the bookies to protect his identity.

The gang revealed that the bookies had arranged for phone lines and given the numbers to the punters. The betting usually starts after the first ball of the first over and goes on till the last ball. The punters make calls to the bookies while the match is running and place their bets. While placing the bets, bookies note down the details of the bets and the punters and record the conversations. After the match, bookies inform their collection agents about the details of the collection and distribution of the amount (who gets how much). Based on that information, the collection agents collect the money from losers and distribute the money to winners. The remaining amount is given to the bookies. Sometimes punters directly send money to the bookies' bank accounts using Paytm and net banking.

On 8 April, the IPL match between Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans was going on and the agents and punters had bet huge sums. On a tip-off, the sleuths of the special operations team, LB Nagar zone, along with the Vanasthalipuram police raided the premises under the limits of Vanasthalipuram and arrested five persons.