Guntur cops turn the heat on bookies

The Guntur Police have begun cracking the whip on bookies with the IPL season taking off. The arrest of a main bookie, Koppuravuri Ramakrishna alias RK, at Chilakaluripet has led to a trail of punters operating across the districts. Apart from cash, police have seized documents pertaining to property worth ₹2 crore.

Ramakrishna has been a known bookie since many years and had reportedly evaded arrest. Fearing arrest, he had even gone to Nepal this year. But a smart move by Superintendent of Police, Guntur Rural, Ch. Venkat Appalanaidu in unearthing properties in the name of the bookie, taking the help of Registrar office and IT department, had forced the accused to surrender to the police.

RK, along with sub bookies Tanneru Venkateswarlu alias Pantulu, Inaganti Siva Rao and Samineni Pradeep Kumar, has been operating at Chilakaluripet and allegedly has contacts in both Guntur and Prakasam districts. The men usually rent out a flat and install communicator boxes and place bets on IPL matches.

The police who recently arrested his accomplices, managed to track his investments and pinned him.

In Guntur Urban Police limits, the punters have chosen remote villages such as like Koyavaripalem in Prathipadu mandal to operate. SP, Guntur Urban, Ch. Vijaya Rao directed the Quick Reaction Team (QRT) members to raid a house where the accused Nama Purnchandra Rao, Vadranapu Venkatesh, Kakarla Arun Babu, B. Siva Nageswara Rao, P. Sadik and K. Ramakrishna were nabbed. The Police recovered ₹2.79 lakh, a car and two bikes from them.