Mahabubabad: The Task Force police along with the Town police have arrested five members of an eight member gang for organising offline cricket betting here on Friday.
They have also seized five cell phones and Rs eight lakh cash from them. They were Posam Srinivas, Chaitanya , Kata Sudhakar, Mallam Vamshikrishna, and Md Rizwan.
The other members of the gang V Chiranjeevi, B Uday, and Srikanth Yadav are said to be absconding.
Disclosing the details at a press conference here on Friday, SP Sharat Chandra Pawar said that the main accused in the case was Vanginenu Chiranjeevi alias BK from Guntur district who had been organising the betting through a kind of chain-link system. “They are conducting betting in Guntur, Vijayawada, Mahabubabad and Khammam districts,” the SP said. Now, they are conducting betting on the IPL matches.
The money is transferred from people to people in the betting. “Two cases were already booked against Rizwan, Sudhakar and Vamshi. We will also open history sheets against the accused,” the SP besides booking them under PD Act. The SP appreciated the Task Force Inspector E Srinivas, SIs B Santosh, Ch Ramesh, and other staff from the Town PS and IT Core team for nabbing the betting gamblers. The police have also been handed over rewards on the occasion.