Organised cricket betting racket busted, property worth ₹95.33 lakh seized

The sleuths froze ₹69.63 lakh in various bank accounts and seized ₹15.70 lakh in cash, a Suzuki Baleno car, four mobile phones, eight credit cards, all worth ₹95.33 lakh from the possession of the accused.

With the arrest of a 25-year-old, Rachkonda police claim to have busted an organised cricket betting racket. The Special Operations Team sleuths who apprehended the accused, Shaik Sadiq, a businessman from Achampet town in Nagarkurnool district, who was residing in Saroornagar, froze ₹69.63 lakh in various bank accounts, and seized ₹15.70 lakh in cash, a Suzuki Baleno car, four mobile phones, eight credit cards, all worth ₹95.33 lakh from his possession. Acting on a tip-off, the SOT sleuths on Wednesday evening busted the online and offline cricket betting racket organised by the accused persons. Apart from the online betting websites and mobile applications, some miscreants also developed specific apps for this illegal activity and the interested punters participate in online cricket betting directly and indirectly by using specific mobile apps and online cricket betting sites, Commissioner of Police Mahesh Bhagwat said. “Thus, Sadiq has become a sub-organiser to run the cricket betting by getting IDs from the bookies who actually organise this illegal activity through online mode,” he said. As per his confession, the actual organisers designed several online cricket betting sites, including ‘UB UAE BET’, 8TEAM and ‘MB MAX INPLAY BET’. The accused subscribes and signs in to such sites by creating an account using his personal details and gets a user id and password from the bookies by paying an amount of ₹10,000. “Once the accused gets user id and password, it validates for a period of one month. Then, he gets joined by the interested punters by contacting them on social media, as well as by his known persons. When any cricket league is scheduled, the accused sends a link to the punters who in turn subscribe the link and bet the money as they are desirous on such ongoing match by sending the amount to the bank account of the accused Sadiq.” he said.