Seven bookies held

MUMBAI: The Social Service Branch of Mumbai police arrested seven bookies from a Malad flat on Thursday night for allegedly accepting bets on the one-day cricket match between India and Pakistan that was played at Gwalior.

The police recovered Rs8,150 in cash, a television set, seven calculators, nine mobile phones and several note books from the flat, a police officer said.

The bookies have been identified as Rajesh Acharya, 42, Nimesh Chandradesai, 30, Mohammed Rafiq Sheikh, 47, Shivram Pujari, 36, Yogesh Pujari, 38, Manoj Yadav, 23, and Tarun Barai, 37.

All the seven people have been booked under 468, 420, 34 of the IPC, along with 4 (1), 5 of Bombay Gambling Act and section 25 (A) of Indian Telegraphic Act.

They have been remanded in police custody till November 22 by the additional chief metropolitan magistrate’s court at Esplanade on Friday.

The police, acting on a tip-off that some people were accepting bets on the said match at flat no 305, B wing, Shreya Aparatment, Chincholi Bunder Road in Malad (West), conducted the raid at 6 pm where Rajesh Acharya and six others were found betting on the their mobile phones, as the match was being played in Gwalior.