6 bookies involved in cricket match-fixing nabbed at Lonavala

Lonavala, Feb 8 (UNI) Six persons from Mumbai were today arrested for allegedly running a cricket betting racket here in the famous hill resort of Maharashtra.

The police officials raided a bungalow, situated at Lonavla, and arrested Kantilal Bhimji Shah (42), Dignesh Zaveri (43), Mayur Shukla (43), Ashok Solanki (50), Piyush Gandhi (39) and Shirish Solanki (31), all residents of Mumbai's western suburbs. They were all businessmen. The suspects were found betting on the cricket matches between India-Sri Lanka played today and England-New Zealand played on Wednesday, which England won.

Police recovered two laptop computers, two television sets, two recording machines, 10 mobile phones, two transistors, printers, writing pads and a car, totally worth Rs 3.62 lakh.

Pune Rural Superintendent of Police Vishwas Nangre-Patil said following a tip-off, a police team raided the bungalow and nabbed the suspects. Following the expose by the Nagpur police about betting in the Nagpur One-Day International (ODI) between India and West Indies, and to avoid being caught due to tough security measures taken by the Mumbai and Thane police officials, the suspects came to Lonavala to run the betting racket, he added.

He said the suspects were found betting with as many as 22 customers via their mobile phones and other communication equipment, including the Internet. Each customer was staking about Rs 2000 to Rs 5000 on the matches. The rate was described as 45:55 (45 points for India and 55 points for Sri Lanka), stating Indian Team as strong contender to win the today's match that was washed out by rains. The suspects were also catering to overseas customers.

''The suspects had received many calls from overseas on their mobile phones. But at present, the Pune Rural police will not investigate them,'' Mr Nangre-Patil said, adding, the money earned was being exchanged through hawala channel.

He claimed that the suspects also betted on two recently concluded ODI matches between India and West Indies. ''''We had information about their betting racket but on both the occasions, the trap failed,'' he informed.

The police have filed a case with the Lonavla police station, some 65 km from Pune, under the Gambling Act and various sections of Information Technology (IT) act, the SP added.

UNI