Cops turn the heat on punters as IPL season begins today

With the IPL season beginning Saturday, the city police are all set to crack the whip on the punters resorting to betting on the matches.

According to the police, more and more youngsters are falling prey to lure of easy money and resorted to betting, only to caught in debt trap. They often resort to criminal activities to repay the debts and worse, some of them commit suicide.

With the enforcement wings turning the heat on the punters on the bigger cities, they have found safe haven in small cities such as Vijayawada and Guntur and towns like Narsaraopet to organise betting. They even use high-end technology including communicator boxes that enable multiple voice-over calls from a box to escape the police.

According to Guntur Urban Superintendent of Police Ch. Vijaya Rao, special police teams have been formed to crack the whip on the cricket betting, apart from the Special Quick Reaction Teams to act swiftly on the tip-offs.

56 arrested last year

During the last IPL season in 2017, Mr. Rao said, a massive drive was launched to curb betting acitvities. And the Guntur Urban Police booked 19 cases and arrested 56 persons on beting charges, apart from seizure of ₹19.06 lakh, the highest so far in the district in the last four years.

Police records suggest that seven betting cases were registered with the seizure of ₹1.56 lakh in 2015, whikle in 2016, five cases were booked.

“We will act tough against cricket betting. The rise in the number of students resorting to betting is a disturbing trends and we will leave no stone unturned to curb betting activities,’’ the SP said.