Hyderabad: In a major operation, Task Force officials have arrested 12 persons, including students, using digital media to run a cricket-betting racket from different parts of the city. Officials seized cash worth Rs 15.50 lakh, along with 22 cell phones and other incriminating material and also found more than Rs 7.27 lakh in two bank accounts of bookie Mahesh Maniyal. Acting on tip offs, the Commissioner’s Task Force, East Zone Team conducted simultaneous raids at four places in Hyderabad and Secunderabad and discovered the hideouts used by bookies.

According to the police, more betting gangs, fearing police raids, are shifting their operations to neighbouring states like Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. In the first raid in Marredpally, five men were arrested and identified as Mahesh Maniyal alias Sona Bhai, 49, S. Sai Kumar, 37, Vijay Kumar Agarwal alias Pappu, 42, Raj Kumar Rathod, 34, U. Vinod Kumar, 58, and Rs 2 lakh seized in cash. Padala Mahesh and Raaki Cheran are absconding. In the second raid, four men were apprehended from Mangalhat, identified as N. Mukesh Singh, 49, C. Srinivas, 20, a student, Kunal Singh, 21. A Goa resident, Prakash Singh alias Sunny, was reported as absconding. Police seized Rs 3.58 lakh and eight cell phones from those arrested.





In the third raid, two men were nabbed from Kachiguda, identified as Vinay Modi, 32 and Pitti Pritesh, 36, while two more — Raju and Rakesh are at large. `9.80 lakh and four cell phones were seized in this operation. In the final raid, Gajan and Upadhyay, 35, were arrested and Rs 12,000 along with mobiles were seized.
“The accused have confessed that the bookies arranged telephonic lines using connections and gave line numbers to the punters, following which punters made calls to the bookies during a match and placed their bets. All conversations were automatically recorded. After the match, bookies would inform their collection agents of the details of collection and distribution of the money," said Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar, adding that based on that information, the agents would collect money from the losers and distribute it to the winners, with the bookie taking the remaining amount.

Sometimes, punters send money to bookies directly via mobile wallets or net banking. "Mukesh Singh confessed that he and his son Prakash Singh are experienced in cricket betting operations. Mukesh was earlier arrested by Mangalhat police for a similar offence. Before the Indian Premier League began, Prakash went to Maharashtra and began running operations by providing 10-line phone connections to his sub-bookies Kunal Singh, Surjeet Singh and others. Acting on Prakash's instructions, Mukesh appointed Srinivas as a collection agent," Kumar added.