Hyderabad: Two bookies cum agents were apprehend for organising an online betting racket on October 8 by the Rachakonda police. After their arrest, Rs 53 lakh, cell phones and tablets used in the crime were seized.
A Special Operations Team (SOT) from the Rachakonda commissionerate, along with officials from the Neredmet police busted the online betting racket and arrested two bookies and one punter for indulging in online betting. They were operating from Trimulgherry, Neredmet.
The accused indulged in online betting platforms such as Bet365, Betfair, 1Xbet, World777 etc. They have been booked under, Sec. 3 and 5 of the Gaming Act under IPC.
The accused, Chunnam Kiran and Syed Aqueel Ahmed, used Betfair.com to conduct the online betting racket, said the Rachakonda police. Chunnam, an MBA graduate and resident of Trimulgherry, had been to the UK and Sri Lanka in 2003 on a job visa where he worked at casinos and discovered online platforms.
He returned to India and created a fake bank account, registered under the name Sreenidhi Soft Byte to conceal his identity, to make money online through illegal means. Further, through his source in the UK, he managed to become an agent and created an account with Betfair.com by paying Rs 20 lakh in advance for membership, said the police.
Chunnam shared the usernames and passwords with punters on a 70-30% commission basis to access the game. As per his net banking statement, transactions of crores of rupees have taken place from his fake bank account. He maintains a very low profile and never meets any punter directly for providing ID’s or for collecting money and everything is done online.
He also involved his childhood friend, Aqueel, into the racket and used his bank for transactions and payments. Aqueel contacted punters directly over the phone and provided them with details to access the game. Both bookies were secretly and illegally operating online betting on sports, casino.
The police have also identified ‘n’ number of active punters involved in online betting with Chunnam Kiran and will take action against them in due course of time.
