The district police in a simultaneous move raided recreation clubs at 15 places in Anantapur district and arrested 42 persons for conducting illegal activities, Superintendent of Police B. Satya Yesubabu said on Thursday.
At 1 a.m. on Thursday the police teams raided the prestigious Anantapur Club in the city along with 14 others in other towns and recovered ₹1.87 lakh, mostly from the Anantapur Club.
The licence of the Anantapur Club, which boasts of the District Collector and the Superintendent of Police as its Chairman and Vice-Chairman and is frequented by affluent and influential persons, would be reviewed after detailed investigation, Mr. Yesubabu said and added that the Collector and the SP’s names were added without their consent. Gambling and cricket betting were going on at the club and retired officers were found playing cards with high stakes of money, the SP said.
Check on belt shops
At other places in the district, matka, gutkha and sand smuggling was also being checked with round-the-clock surveillance. The district police registered cases against 128 persons for running belt shops and 3,714 illegal liquor bottles were seized in June and 27 cases were registered for playing matka and ₹1.87 lakh was recovered during that time. Another ₹10 lakh was recovered from people playing cards in open fields.
Four tippers were seized and 14 cases of sand smuggling registered, the SP said and added that 584 cases of PDS rice smuggling were registered and 337 quintals of rice seized.