Hyderabad: Online betting racket busted, three arrested

Hyderabad: Malkajgiri Police Special Operations Team along with Neredmet Police busted an online betting racket and arrested three persons including two organisers in Neredmet on Friday. Police seized Rs 53 lakh apart from freezing over Rs 21.8 lakh in various bank accounts. Officials said the bookies had registered with online betting websites and secured agent […]

Hyderabad: Malkajgiri Police Special Operations Team along with Neredmet Police busted an online betting racket and arrested three persons including two organisers in Neredmet on Friday. Police seized Rs 53 lakh apart from freezing over Rs 21.8 lakh in various bank accounts.

Officials said the bookies had registered with online betting websites and secured agent codes through their source from the United Kingdom and then provided usernames and passwords to punters for online betting. They received money through net banking.

The arrested persons were C Kiran and Syed Aqeel Ahmed, both bookies from Trimulgherry, and A Surender Reddy, a punter from Kushaiguda. According to the police, Kiran, who worked for a brief time in restaurants in the UK and Sri Lanka in 2003, learnt about online betting sites through his source in the UK, managed to become an agent and created an account on a popular site by paying Rs 20 lakh towards membership to organise online betting, Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said.

He was organising betting since 2018 and was in contact with more than 1,000 punters, Bhagwat said, adding that Kiran had appointed his childhood friend Aqeel to assist him in operating the racket and for online transactions.

“Kiran often visited casinos in the UK, Sri Lanka and Goa and is in contact with several bookies apart from being quite popular in Goa. A few months ago, he employed four Nepali women who are professionals in online betting on sports and casino. He lodged them in rented houses in Hyderabad paying them salaries,” the Commissioner said, adding that each day, several lakhs were deposited into Kiran’s accounts by punters. The betting amount, depending on the win or loss, would be shared among the punter, bookie and the online betting site.

“We are also verifying how many fake firm accounts are operating and have also identified several active punters. We will take action against them soon,” Bhagwat said.

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