Delhi Police busts IPL cricket betting racket, 2 arrested

Two persons have been arrested in Delhi for allegedly running a cricket betting racket on the Indian Premier League (PIL) matches, and a TV, mobile phones, and laptop have been recovered from their possession, police said on Saturday.

According to the police, the two arrested persons have been identified as Mohit Verma (27) and Deepak Kumar (27), both residents of Delhi's Sangam Vihar.

The duo was arrested from a flat in the Greater Kailash area on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday and six mobile phones, a laptop, an LED TV, and a wireless internet router were recovered from their possession.

On Thursday evening, information was received at Narcotics Squad regarding an IPL cricket betting racket being operated in Greater Kailash-I on an IPL match, police said adding that the information was shared with the senior officers who ordered immediate legal action.

"At about 10 pm, a raid was conducted after complying with all the legal aspects at the given address with raiding staff duly deployed accordingly nearby the given address to prevent the escape of the offenders," the police said in a statement.

"During sustained interrogation, accused Mohit Verma disclosed that he has taken the said premises at on rent for Rs 27,000 per month with his partner Rajeev who is running a guest house in Greater Kailash and lives in Sangam Vihar," it added.

The police said that Verma further disclosed that they had installed a betting assistance application on the laptop and a video calling application on the TV, wherein the name, amount details of clients along with the live rate of betting on the match was being shown.

"Both the applications were being run through the internet with the help of a wireless internet router. With the help of this, the accused were facilitating paperless betting on IPL live cricket match in the posh area of South Delhi," the statement said.

A case was registered in the matter on October 23, 2020, under Section 3 and 4 of the Delhi Public Gambling Act, 1955 at Greater Kailash police station and investigation is being carried out as per the facts and the recovery in the case.

( With inputs from ANI )