Kurnool police take a tough line

Cricket betting is spreading its tentacles in Kurnool district with the organisers offering hefty returns that range from 200 to 300 times the money invested in betting. Gullible youth and students are not only falling prey to it but are also resorting to secondary crimes such as thefts, chain snatching and securing loans with forged documents making it a herculean task for the Police Department to curb the menace.

Taking cricket betting as a challenge, Kurnool district police are all set to slap the PD Act on habitual offenders, and open rowdy sheets on those arrested, Kurnool Superintendent of Police Gopinath Jatti told The Hindu. Use of technology to trace the organisers and bringing them to book has become a cumbersome process due to lack of adequate cyber security personnel and under-staffing in the department, he added.

Unbridled access to multiple mobile phones, use of voice over internet calls and calls made through social media apps that can conceal the identity and origin of the calls and tracking the mobile numbers have been making it an arduous task for the police to pin down the culprits. A couple of software professionals who lost their jobs, some B. Tech, MBA and degree students and youth addicted to vices have been mainly caught by the police in the last couple of years, while the main organisers have managed to give them the slip or operated through others.

Cricket betting is particularly rampant in Kurnool, Adoni, Nandyal, Yemmiganur, Alur, Peddakabadur, Dhone and other towns and some rural areas in the district. Betting is done on ball-to-ball basis, fall of wickets, runs scored in a particular over, the score of a player and victory of teams.

While online cricket betting is thriving, some gangs have been organising it in several towns using those already involved in it to rope in new customers.

Database

The SP said he has prepared a database of the cases booked during the last four years, examined the modus operandi of the organisers and listed over 90 organisers and stepped up vigil on them. Most organisers have been bound over and warned that they will be dealt with severely if apprehended again, Mr. Gopinath says.

The PD Act would be slapped on habitual offenders and rowdy sheets would be opened on those caught for the first or second time, the SP warned. As many as 168 accused were arrested in 34 cases during 2017 and over 125 arrested in about 25 cases till date this year.