Five held for cricket betting

Hyderabad: In three separate raids, five members of an inter-state online IPL cricket betting gang were arrested by Special Operation Team (SOT) Cyberabad, and Rs 1.84 crore were recovered from them. As many as 36 mobile phones, three laptops, one tab, a router were also recovered, Stephen Ravindra, Cyberabad police commissioner said on Wednesday.

SOT, Shamshabad along with the RGIA police arrested Podapati Narsing Rao, a sub-bookie. Based on his confession, police got the names of the main bookies Ganapathi Reddy of Karnataka and Srinivas Raju of Andhra Pradesh. Both are absconding.

The main bookies provided access through the sub-bookie who used apps like Vajra777.com, VajraExchange, MetroExchange, RadheExchange, FocusBook247, Varma777. Rao provides access to punters in lieu of money by giving a username and password. The money was even sometimes digitally transferred.

Rs. 60,00,000 cash, Rs 32,00,000 frozen in bank accounts, and two mobile phones, worth Rs. 92,00,000 were seized from the accused.
In the second incident, SOT, Rajendranagar along with police arrested a main bookie Vegesina Ravi Raju and a sub-bookie Bhupatiraju Prasad Raju while they were organising online cricket betting through RadheExchange, Cricket Live Guru in Bandlaguda Jagir, Rajendranagar.

Raju gave access to the app to the sub-bookie who in turn gave access to the punters who through the RadheExchange app and Cricket Live Guru app were betting, the commissioner said. Rs. 71,50,000 cash and Rs. 7,37,000 frozen in bank accounts, 17 mobile phones, and two laptops worth Rs 81,00,000 were seized from the accused.

In the third incident, SOT, Balanagar along with Narsingi police arrested K. Vinod Kumar, while co-accused Srikanth Reddy is absconding. Both Srikanth and Vinod, sub-bookies had access to online cricket betting apps - National Exchange9/Topaz777.com, etc... from main bookie Lingam alias Linga Raju alias LR who is absconding. Police seized Rs. 7,52,000 cash, 17 mobile phones, one tab, and another material worth Rs 11,00,000 from the accused.