Match-fixing: 6 bookies nabbed at Lonavala

Lonavala, Feb 9: Six persons from Mumbai were today arrested forallegedly running a cricket betting racket here in the famous hillresort of Maharashtra.

The police officials raided a bungalow, situated at Lonavla, andarrested 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 betweenIndia-Sri Lanka played today and England-New Zealand played onWednesday, which England won.

Police recovered two laptop computers, two television sets, tworecording 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 saidfollowing a tip-off, a police team raided the bungalow and nabbed thesuspects. Following the expose by the Nagpur police about betting inthe Nagpur One-Day International (ODI) between India and West Indies,and to avoid being caught due to tough security measures taken by theMumbai and Thane police officials, the suspects came to Lonavala to runthe betting racket, he added.

He said the suspects were found betting with as many as 22customers via their mobile phones and other communication equipment,including the Internet. Each customer was staking about Rs 2000 to Rs5000 on the matches. The rate was described as 45:55 (45 points forIndia and 55 points for Sri Lanka), stating Indian Team as strongcontender to win the today's match that was washed out by rains. Thesuspects were also catering to overseas customers.

''The suspects had received many calls from overseas on theirmobile phones. But at present, the Pune Rural police will notinvestigate them,'' Mr Nangre-Patil said, adding, the money earned wasbeing exchanged through hawala channel.

He claimed that the suspects also betted on two recently concludedODI matches between India and West Indies. ''''We had information abouttheir betting racket but on both the occasions, the trap failed,'' heinformed.

The police have filed a case with the Lonavla police station, some65 km from Pune, under the Gambling Act and various sections ofInformation Technology (IT) act, the SP added.

UNI

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