Sri Lanka v India series betting racket busted, 3 bookies held

The lack of action in the first ODI of the series between Sri Lanka and India was compensated by the adrenaline rush cricket fans felt in the second ODI. However, fans will be upset to know that there were people trying to fill in their pockets during this while as the latest news is that Mumbai’s city crime branch busted a cricket betting racket and arrested three bookies accepting bets on the ODI match played between India and Sri Lanka, from an office in D N Nagar, Andheri, on Friday night.

The police said these bookies have links in Ahmedabad, Delhi and Dubai. Acting on a tip-off, the crime branch unit 9 raided a commercial building and arrested three individuals – Deepak Ravi Kapoor, Tarun Sunny Thakur and his cousin Sunny Ashok Thakur. One of the accused, Kapoor, runs a real estate consultancy as a front, but is the kingpin of the gang and was a small-time punter before becoming a full-time bookie recently.

13 mobiles recovered

As reported by Times of India, police have seized 13 cell phones, two laptops, computers, a diary with details of clients and Rs 74,000. The accused have been booked under the Gambling Act and for forgery as they had 13 mobile and SIM cards registered in somebody else name.

Advocate Mane Shinde, who appeared for the accused, said the SIM cards belonged to Kapoor’s employees. Sources in the report said the accused were taking bets from punters and dealing with counterparts in Ahmedabad and Delhi. “We’ve sought call detail reports to know as to who they were in touch with,” said a source.

The 3rd ODI is underway right now and the match is in a situation that would have fetched a lot of attention from bookies. Even though these three have been caught, the other subordinates in the racket that are based in Delhi and Ahmedabad are yet to be traced. We hope everyone involved in the racket is caught to prevent the game from being subjected to this.