Cricket betting racket busted; 6 land in police net

Police today claimed to have busted a betting racket of international cricket matches with the arrest of six gang members who had taken bets to the tune of Rs40 lakh in various matches held recently.

Those arrested were identified as Manish, Vishal, Hitender Kumar, Pankaj, Ravi and Parveen Sharma, police said.

19 mobile phones, one laptop, one  TV, two calculators and two registers which the accused used to use in the betting were also recovered, they said.

"During investigation, it has been found that betting to the tune of Rs 40lakhs had been made in the recent past on various international cricket matches (through the racket)," police said.

The six persons arrested on Monday confessed that betting to the tune of about Rs3 lakh had taken place during the the recent match between India and Sri Lanka in Cuttak, they said.

The accused revealed that during the cricket matches they used to get connected to betting sites through internet on their laptop to know the rates on various teams and players.

They also used to use mobile phones for the purpose.

They received calls from sources on their mobile phones and placed their bets on runs per over and on the winning or the losing team.

The racket was busted and its members were arrested "red-handed" on a tip-off on Monday that betting on the one day match between Sri Lanka and India in Cuttak was going on from an apartment in Malkaganj, north district deputy CP Sagar Preet said.