Six held in betting racket remanded in police custody

Six persons were arrested from two different places on charges of running cricket betting racket during the T-20 World Cup match between India and Australia on Sunday night.

Police said that four persons were arrested from a five star hotel on Park Street while two others were arrested from a residential apartment on Ballygunge Circular Road.

Acting on a tip off, police conducted a raid in the hotel and the four accused — Bishal Thatik, Rakesh Singh, Sumit Papli and Sanjay Chowdhury — were found in a room in the fourth floor of the hotel. 

Many telephone sets, 11 mobile phones and a laptop were seized from them. Police found Rs 20,600 from the hotel room.

According to the officers of the city police detective department the accused had chosen the hotel room to run the betting racket considering that no one will suspect them. Police are now trying to find whether they had committed the similar crime from any of the hotels in the city.

A police officer said it seemed that they were involved in crime for the past few years, but they used to operate from the adjoining areas of the city including Howrah and North 24-Parganas. This could be the second time when they were operating from a place in the city.

The two others — Pradip Jain and Anil Agarwal — were arrested from a flat in Ballygunge Circular Road on similar charges. A few lakh rupees, mobile phones and laptop were recovered from them.

All six were produced before the court on Monday. Bishal, Rakesh, Sumit and Sanjay were remanded in the custody of the police till April 1 while Pradip and Anil were remanded in the custody till April 3.

A police officer said that all six of them were well aware of the betting racket operating in the area and they can provide details of the people involved in the racket and their hideouts.

It may be mentioned that in a bid to avoid getting caught, members of the racket now operate in the adjoining areas. 

Police had intensified raids in areas near EM Bypass.