18 arrested from Le Meridien Hotel for gambling
3 Sept 2014 4:40 AM IST
As many as 18 people were arrested after they were caught gambling in two luxury suites of a five star hotel in New Delhi on Sunday night.
As narrated by a senior police official, they received information that some people were gambling at the Le Meridien hotel at Janpath and they had booked two adjacent suites for the purpose. At around 10:30 pm, the rooms were raided and 18 men were found gathered in the room for a large-scale gambling. After a thorough search of the room, around Rs 2,16,000 was recovered — board money to the tune of Rs 1,06,000 and Rs 1,10,000 in cash — apart from a few sets of playing cards, said a police official.
The accused were identified as Amit Yadav, Pawan Pandit, Ikramuddin, Jitender, Krishna Kumar, Raghav Bharadwaj, Vivek Tyagi, Mukesh Kumar, Shrichand, Sunil Kumar, Gyanender Kumar, Maharajuddin, Naveen, Kailash Kumar Sharma, Sudarshan Kumar, Sunil Gupta, Ashok and Dharmender.
They were released on bail within a few hours of their arrest. One of them owns a dairy, another is a naturopath doctor, one of them is a travel agent and the others were all shop owners, said a police official.
‘On being interrogated, they told police that they had gathered at the five-star hotel as it offered a safe hideout away from the scrutiny of the police and other law-enforcement agencies,’ said SBS Tyagi, Additional Commissioner of Police (New Delhi).
He further said, in this particular case, role of the hotel staff is also being scrutinised as, despite being a 5-star hotel, they failed to check such use of the hotel premises for large-scale gambling and other potential illegal activities. According to a source, there are high chances of the involvement of one or more hotel employees in this case.
On checking the hotel records, police found that the two suites were booked by Sudershan Kumar and Rajesh Kumar, said a police official.
He further added, while Sudarshan was arrested from the spot, Rajesh Kumar was not present there at the time of the raid. The police also said that they shall write to the licensing unit of the Delhi Police as the hotel authorities, firstly, permitted so many people in a suite and secondly, they failed to verify the identities of the remaining 16 people who were found gambling within the hotel premises. Le Meridien authorities said that the suites were booked by a travel agency in the name of two people — Sudarshan Kumar and Rajesh Kumar — who had checked in at the hotel around 8 pm on Sunday. Later, the guests told the hotel authorities that some more visitors would be coming over for celebrations.
‘These people were allowed because, as per the Le Meridien standards, visitors can meet guests at the hotel rooms till 10 pm. When police came to the hotel for a raid, we cooperated with them,’ said vice-president (Operations) Meena Bhatia.
As narrated by a senior police official, they received information that some people were gambling at the Le Meridien hotel at Janpath and they had booked two adjacent suites for the purpose. At around 10:30 pm, the rooms were raided and 18 men were found gathered in the room for a large-scale gambling. After a thorough search of the room, around Rs 2,16,000 was recovered — board money to the tune of Rs 1,06,000 and Rs 1,10,000 in cash — apart from a few sets of playing cards, said a police official.
The accused were identified as Amit Yadav, Pawan Pandit, Ikramuddin, Jitender, Krishna Kumar, Raghav Bharadwaj, Vivek Tyagi, Mukesh Kumar, Shrichand, Sunil Kumar, Gyanender Kumar, Maharajuddin, Naveen, Kailash Kumar Sharma, Sudarshan Kumar, Sunil Gupta, Ashok and Dharmender.
They were released on bail within a few hours of their arrest. One of them owns a dairy, another is a naturopath doctor, one of them is a travel agent and the others were all shop owners, said a police official.
‘On being interrogated, they told police that they had gathered at the five-star hotel as it offered a safe hideout away from the scrutiny of the police and other law-enforcement agencies,’ said SBS Tyagi, Additional Commissioner of Police (New Delhi).
He further said, in this particular case, role of the hotel staff is also being scrutinised as, despite being a 5-star hotel, they failed to check such use of the hotel premises for large-scale gambling and other potential illegal activities. According to a source, there are high chances of the involvement of one or more hotel employees in this case.
On checking the hotel records, police found that the two suites were booked by Sudershan Kumar and Rajesh Kumar, said a police official.
He further added, while Sudarshan was arrested from the spot, Rajesh Kumar was not present there at the time of the raid. The police also said that they shall write to the licensing unit of the Delhi Police as the hotel authorities, firstly, permitted so many people in a suite and secondly, they failed to verify the identities of the remaining 16 people who were found gambling within the hotel premises. Le Meridien authorities said that the suites were booked by a travel agency in the name of two people — Sudarshan Kumar and Rajesh Kumar — who had checked in at the hotel around 8 pm on Sunday. Later, the guests told the hotel authorities that some more visitors would be coming over for celebrations.
‘These people were allowed because, as per the Le Meridien standards, visitors can meet guests at the hotel rooms till 10 pm. When police came to the hotel for a raid, we cooperated with them,’ said vice-president (Operations) Meena Bhatia.
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