A cricket betting syndicate with links to bookies in West Asia was busted in Bangalore on Saturday night by Central Crime Branch sleuths, who arrested four bookies from R.T. Nagar.
Mobile phone records of the arrested bookies have revealed that they were in regular touch with punters across the country and also with their counterparts in Dubai, police sources said.
Suraj, Balraj, Anil Kumar, and Nazeer were arrested during a raid on their apartment in Sultanpalya in R.T. Nagar.
The police seized Rs. 23.28 lakh in cash, 24 mobile phones and a currency counting machine, among other things, from the apartment.
The police suspect that Suraj headed the betting syndicate in Karnataka and the gang used the ‘hawala’ route to transact with punters and bookies in Rajasthan, Mumbai, and also in West Asia, especially Dubai.
According to sources, the police are probing the match-fixing angle in Champions League T20, which is under way, since the accused, during investigation, reportedly confessed to their links with an international syndicate.
(The Hindu)
