Delhi Police Crime Branch arrested nine people from a five-star hotel for allegedly running an IPl betting racket. Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime, Madhur Verma said that during the interrogation of the accused they claimed that they were involved in betting on cricket matches for the last decade.
"They were planning to take a week-long vacation post the IPl and then returning to Delhi for the Champions Trophy," said Verma. The police is currently working on knowing who were the other bookies the accused were in touch with.
It is also suspected that they were involved in betting on other Indian sporting leagues like Hockey India league and Indian Super league, police said.
The Crime Branch was working on inputs about some men being involved in betting money on the IPl matches. On the basis of a tip-off, a raid was conducted on Sunday at a five-star hotel in north-west Delhi. They had booked a room at the hotel for carrying out the betting activities on the final match of the league.
When the raid was conducted, it was found that the IPl final between Rising Pune Supergiants and Mumbai Indians was running on an lED screen while customers were calling on cell phones for placing bets on the match.
Ten mobile phones of bookies, three laptops, seven mobile phones used for receiving calls from clients, two mobile phones for making calls for getting bets and note sheets were seized from the spot, said DCP Madhur Verma.
The nine accused identified as Kunal Miglani (31), Jitender Kumar (33), Sumit Kalra alias Sunny (32), Nitin Harjani (38), Nikhil Gidwani (23), Amit Kumar Dhingra (32), Sumit Sharma (32), Rajesh Jain (46) and Naveen Kumar (29), he added.
During interrogation, it was found that Miglani, Kalra and Jitender are the kingpins. The betting was done completely through phones and the money earned or lost was taken or delivered to the clients the next day, Verma said. The betting racket is running on assurance.
Police said that the phones had recording facility so that the accused could keep a track of the money they had to give or take from their clients.
The accused persons used to bet their money on cricket matches but they later formed their own betting network.