Rs 2.37 crore in bank accounts of cricket bettors frozen

ANANTAPUR: Anantapur police have got frozen Rs 2.37 crore in 20 bank accounts following a raid at a house from which cricket betting was being run.

Authorities also seized Rs 6.03 lakh in cash, 24 mobile phones and laptops, two communicators, apart from 4.5 kg ganja during the raid conducted on Friday.
Police have arrested three cricket bookies – two from Visakhapatnam and one from Karnataka.

The three had shifted to Anantapur from Bengaluru following police clampdown against cricket betting in that city.

Additional superintendent of police J. Rammohan Rao said Ghattamaneni Subhash Chandrabose of Girijala in Anandapuram mandal of Visakhapatnam district was the main bookie. He roped in services of Ghattamaneni Ajayakumar of Lakshminagar in Pendurthi mandal of Visakhapatnam district and Ramappa Nagaraju of Inthurayanipalli in Pavagada taluk of Karnataka.
Subhash Chandrabose had been involved in online cricket betting for the past few years in Bengaluru. Following intense raids by police in that city, he shifted to Anantapur.

Police said the betting ran through online bank transactions from the Anantapur residence of Chandrabose. He set up the necessary equipment, along with laptops, routers and a large number of mobile phones. The betting busted is related to ongoing IPL matches involving team victory or defeat, ball to ball, over to over and players.

Following a tip off, police teams led by DSP Veera Raghava Reddy, one town inspector Prathap Reddy and four town circle inspector Kathi Srinivasulu raided the betting centre on Friday and made the seizures.
The additional SP said transactions went through about 90 bank accounts in all.

“So far, we have verified 20 bank accounts in different names through which online transactions had been routed. Rs 2.37 crore deposited in these accounts has been frozen. Remaining bank accounts too are being verified”, Rammohan Rao added.