The Crime Branch Bhopal nabbed an engineer posted with Bhopal Doordarshan, on the charge of accepting bets on cricket match during Pakistan-Australia match of ICC World Cup 2015 on Friday from his Professor Colony residence. The Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime) Shailendra Singh Chouhan told The Pioneer that acting on a tip-off, the action was taken in which Alok Pandey was nabbed from his residence.
Chouhan said that the team identified and earmarked the house and later, proper recce was conducted by the team. The house was raided on Friday and recovered goods used in betting. Among the recoveries police recovered four mobile phones, TV, set top box and a diary in which details of placing and accepting bets were mentioned. Police received information regarding betting, which was operated for the past few months and was accepting bets during ongoing ICC World Cup 2015.
During the investigation, police found that the accused is involved in betting and gambling for several years and incurred huge loss in those years and interestingly, to repay the money borrowed he had taken loan from HDFC and SBI banks and was paying an EMI of Rs20,000 – Rs25,000. After suffering huge loss in gambling and betting, he came into contact with a bookie, who told him of betting during the cricket matches of World Cup 2015, which would help in recovering his losses.
The accused has confirmed that he had invested around Rs2.5 lakh and confessed that he started betting on March 12, 2015. Further investigation has been started and those, who have placed bets with the accused, would be questioned.