Hyderabad: A betting racket which operated from abroad was busted by the South Zone Task Force team along with Ramgopalpet Police on Wednesday.
Apparently this is the first time after the start of Cricket World Cup, that an organised cricket betting racket was busted in the city. The was using a Mobile App called Match Box 9.com created specially for betting purpose. The cops have nabbed six persons and seized an amount of Rs 8 lakh which was used for betting.
The kingpin of the racket, Barkat, was a resident of Sindhi Colony.
To avoid arrest and other legal procedure, Barkat went abroad before the start of IPL season of 2019 and carried out cricket betting through his friends in Hyderabad. Ten members were involved in the betting racket, four members are still absconding.
The 10 members are divided into three groups, two groups look after the back-end operations in Goa and Secunderabad respectively and another group act as collection agents. Each group receive 3 per cent as commission over the betting amount collected by them
K. Madhu Mohan Reddy, Inspector of Police, South Zone said, “Through their contacts they have selected some persons in their friend circle as agents and through them identified reliable punters. From such punters they collected money as deposits in advance and gave them the link for the above App, and enabled them to participate in betting. They also accepted betting amounts from their punters.”
The accused persons along with seized property were handed over to SHO, Ramgopalpet P.S for further action.
