Ten arrested for running gambling racket in city hotel

Ten people were arrested on Wednesday in connection with an inter-state gambling racket operating from a hotel at Kolkata’s Elliot Road.

Police said all the accused in the racket were arrested from the same hotel. “We have arrested the accused and they will be sent to court. Those people have come from Bihar,” said a police officer.

The police also informed that a game was being played in the hotel during the raid. “They used to play poker at the hotel. We have seized dice and a poker Board,” the officer said. Police have also learnt that around Rs 15 lakh was bet in a single day.

The police have arrested the owner of the hotel. “The owner has claimed that he had just rented out a room and did not know anything about the gambling. But we believe he has a big share in the game. The accused have also mentioned him in their statements to us,” the officer said.

It is to be recalled that police had arrested four gamblers a few days ago in the city. The four had been arrested in connection with an inter-state gambling racket that was operating through a customised web portal, police said on Wednesday.

While Alok Basu (47) and Ajay Upadhyay (41) were nabbed from Cotton Street, Santosh Sharma (56) and Harshit Dhandhania (31) were picked up from Belur and Bagmari respectively, based on a tip-off.

According to police sources, the gamblers had created an online lottery portal called ‘Kubermatka.mobi’ to get access to people outside the state. Investigation has revealed that illegal online lottery, which is flourishing in Kolkata, has strong links with kingpins in Mumbai, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha as well.

“From time to time, we conduct raids in the city to unearth such rackets. Some criminals are also involved in them. We have information about some rackets in different parts of Kolkata. We will uncover them too very soon,” said a top officer of Kolkata Police.