The Delhi Police has started interrogating Mumbai's big time bookie Ramesh Vyas (52), who has been brought to Delhi on production remand. Police sources said that Vyas, a resident of Napean Sea Road, was operating as a facilitator for cellular conversations between bookies in Pakistan, Dubai and from Jaipur, Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
For connecting all these calls between the bookies of these places, he earned Rs 1.2 lakh per day. He also controls D-Company's operations in South India and was arrested in 2005, while his associate Feroz, who is absconding, was arrested in 2012, for allegedly betting during IPl matches. Vyas was arrested on May 12 by Mumbai Police on the charges of running a well entrenched betting syndicate.
"Vyas was operating by using Pakistani numbers and was directly in touch with four bookies of Delhi. Bookies from Pakistan and Dubai have been putting on huge stakes on the ongoing IPl matches and were betting on every IPl match on minute to minute basis. The sleuths of Special Cell had intercepted his call with Ashwini Aggarwal alias Tinku Mandi, when Vyas was connecting his call to a Pakistani number," a source said. After the arrest of Vyas along with two associates, police had seized 92 cell phones and 30 lines directly linked to Pakistani contacts from their possession.
After the sustained interrogation of Vyas, a South Mumbai-based property dealer and also a sweet manufacturer told the investigators that initially he used to run his own property dealing business, but in 2005 he indulged in betting and with the help of Shoban Mehta alias Shoban Kalachowki, a well-known bookie, he started operating the illegal telephone exchange in South Mumbai, to run his betting network.
Several calls were made to Dubai and Pakistan from his illegal telephone exchange. "In 2005, the crime branch of Mumbai Police had busted his illegal telephone exchange and arrested him. Investigators had recovered a conferencing machine, power supply unit, phone, internet terminal box, net-to-phone devices and account books. His arrest had led to the arrest of top bookie Mehta. However, within some months, he got bail and was back in the betting racket," the sources added.
"Vyas also told the investigators that he never disclosed to his parties that phone lines connected by him were from Pakistan and Dubai. Before the start of any IPl match, he would first make a call to one bookie abroad and later connect him on conference call with another bookie in India. He was getting Rs 4,000 for connecting per call between all the bookies of Pakistan, Dubai and India," the sources added.