The Andhra Pradesh City Task Force (CTF) busted an illegal IPL betting racket in Visakhapatnam and arrested 7 people. A team from the Three Town Police Station also accompanied the Force on the raid in an apartment in the Kirlampudi layout.
The two teams raided the apartment late on Wednesday night and arrested the accused. The police caught the gang placing high stake bets on the Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Chennai Super Kings match.
The CTF team was led by ACP I. Chittibabu and the Three Town team was led by Emmanuel Raju. They seized 93 mobile phones, 100 used SIM cards, 34 unused SIM cards, 3 television sets, 3 laptops, 5 multi level cell connectivity boxes, 9 personal mobiles, 5 betting registers and 1 digital scanner. The teams also seized Rs. 10.6 lakhs in cash, 1 four wheeler and 4 two wheelers.
Mr. Chittibabu explained this was the biggest betting racket uncovered during the past 4 years. The men began this illegal racket a few months ago and were in business from the beginning of the IPL tournament. The police found in just 13 days the betting turnover crossed Rs. 2.5 crores.
The Joint Commissioner of Police Nagendra Kumar said this was one of the smaller operations. He went on to explain the smaller bets were diverted to Visakhapatnam while the bigger rackets are in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. An investigation has been launched to bust the betting rackets in the cities.
