IPL betting and spot-fixing: Bookie Vyas started SIM collection in November

It now appears that preparations for IPL betting began in November last year when one of the key bookies Ramesh Vyas, who was instrumental in connecting Pakistan-based bookies with Indian bookies, allegedly bought SIM cards by using identity documents of his domestic help and other unsuspecting people.

In his statement to the police, Ramvilas Mandal, 40, a native of Bihar, who has been working as a domestic help and cook at Vyas’s Napeansea Road residence for the past 30 years, claimed that in November, 2012 Vyas had asked for his photograph and photocopy of his election card assuring that they will be used to make his so-called ‘work identity card.’

On June 25, when the police questioned Mandal about a mobile phone number that was being used for betting purposes and showed him the documents used for procuring the SIM card, Mandal claimed that he never bought or used that number. “I am an old employee of Vyas and it is shocking to know he used my photograph and documents to purchase a SIM card in my name and used it for illegal purposes,” Mandal said in his police statement.

Mumbai crime branch’s charge sheet further reveals that Vyas betrayed trust of others as well to procure SIM cards used for betting. He took identity documents of employees working in his father’s sweet shop, Bajarang Sweets, in Kalbadevi. The police have recorded the statements of Shivvachan Bake Rai, 53, and Ramshobhit Chaupal, 23, the two employees at the shop. In their statements Rai and Chaupal claimed Vyas allegedly took their photographs and ID proofs to keep with him for records. But he allegedly misused them to procure SIM cards and forged their signatures.

“Vyas, who runs Yash Communication Center, also took the documents and photographs of people on pretext of giving them a cell phone for free. These photographs and documents were later used for procuring SIM cards by fraudulent means,” a police official said.

The officer added, “Vyas told Jitendra Chaurasiya, 33, who sells paan in Bhangwadi that a telecom company is giving cell phone and SIM cards for free and in March 2013 took away photographs and ID proofs of eight people, including Chaurasiya, his mother, brother, cousins, relatives and friends, and allegedly misused them.

Similar modus operandi was used by Sandeep Chabra alias Pawan Jaipur who is accused in the IPL betting scam,” said a crime branch officer, privy to the investigation.

When Vyas was arrested in May this year, 92 cell phones were seized from his Lalwani Mansion flat and of these 30 were allegedly being used for betting.

Actor worked in serials produced by ex-bookie
Former Delhi-based bookie Anand Saxena, 51, had told officers of Mumbai crime branch in June that he first met Vindoo Dara Singh in 1993 at a film party. “In 2001, Vindoo introduced me to a serial director for whom I produced a television serial.

Thereafter, I produced four other television serials in which Vindoo worked,” Saxena told the police. Saxena, a builder, had told the police that he had introduced Vindoo to top bookies, including Sunder and Mandi Delhi.