JAIPUR: The state’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Wednesday conducted raids at three locations in Jaipur and one in Suratgarh where half-a-dozen bookies, who were betting on final IPL, were arrested. Cash, laptops and mobiles were seized from the accused.
Two locations at Karni Vihar here were raided and seven persons arrested. A total of Rs 8.5 lakh was seized from them along with three laptops and over 30 mobiles among other things. In Adarsh Nagar, one bookie was arrested and Rs 1.9 lakh seized along with six mobile phones and a laptop.
In Sriganganagar’s Suratgarh, cops arrested one person who was betting on the final match. In all the cases, ATS had information about the suspected bookies and local police was informed about the same who arrested the bookies.
Ten days ago, police had arrested six bookies who were betting on IPL matches. Cash amounting to Rs 74,000 and account diaries mentioning crores of rupees were recovered from them. Out of the six accused, four were from West Bengal, one from Jaipur and one from Haryana.
Last month, six bookies were arrested in Sez police station area in a raid conducted by the Anti-Terrorism Squad.
During the IPL season in UAE, Rajasthan police regularly arrested alleged bookies. In a major action against them last month, the ATS had simultaneously raided five locations in three states and arrested seven bookies from Cyberabad in Telangana while the remaining from Jaipur. Usually, the accused were involved in betting in a layered manner. They keep noting down all the calls for bets. Most of the bets are passed on to the person sitting at a higher level for which they get a commission. There are a few websites on which they keep monitoring the rates of bets. The settlement is done through hawala transaction.