Hyderabad: The Goshamahal police arrested 16 persons for allegedly organising and participating in illegal gambling activities at Dhanlakshmi Fish Godown in the Fish Market area of Begum Bazaar in the early hours of Sunday.
Police said they raided the premises at around 12.20 am on November 8 and found 16 persons allegedly gambling with money while playing ‘Andar Bahar’ and ‘Teen Patti’ in two adjoining rooms.
The police seized Rs 23,800 in cash allegedly used for betting, three sets of playing cards and four mobile phones, including an iPhone 15 Pro Max, in the presence of panch witnesses.
The arrested persons were identified as Gulshan Singh, Ankit Singh, Vijay Raj Singh, Vikas Birader, Gadekar Anil, Akshith Singh, Ankit, Karan Sonkar, Hari Om, Preetham, Manish, Bhanu, Prakash, Ankit Kumar, Sandeep Nishag and Prem Shankar.
Police said 12 other accused, identified as Adappa, Arjun Singh, Abhishek, Ajay, Dinesh, Mithun, Ashitosh, Dheeraj, Karthik Singh, Vikas Singh, Vishal Singh and another person named Arjun Singh, were absconding.
A case was registered under Sections 3 and 4 of the Telangana Gaming Act and Section 112(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at the Goshamahal police station.
Goshamahal inspector B. Sravan Kumar said in a statement that the police had examined witnesses and collected evidence as part of the investigation. Efforts were underway to trace the absconding accused.
Police also cautioned owners and managers of commercial premises against allowing their properties to be used for illegal gambling and urged the public to report such activities to the nearest police station or through emergency numbers 100 and 112.