Two betting rackets busted, 6 arrested

Hyderabad: The Special Operations Team (SOT), Cyberabad on Wednesday busted a cricket betting racket by arresting five persons. The team has recovered a laptop, 11 cellphones, a car besides Rs 1.04 lakh and other equipment used for betting from the arrested members. Six other suspected bookies, Sachin, Harish, Ganesh, Chandra, Srinu and Ghouse, are absconding.

Acting on specific information, the police team conducted simultaneous raids on some residential premises of the suspected members of the betting gang in Vanasthalipuram and Malakpet, and arrested Nagam Ravi Kumar, 42, of Malakpet, Neelapala Naresh, 30, Devarasetty Sai Kumar, 24, Gone Srikanth Goud, 29 and Vinjamuri Sravan Reddy, all residents of Vanasthalipuram.

Police suspect that bookies organised betting from Hyderabad and other places through their wide network of agents by involving punters in the district.

Similarly, a cricket betting syndicate operating in the current season of the ICC World Cup 2015 between Ireland and UAE has been busted at Chilkalguda on Wednesday. Acting on a tip-off, the Task Force (North) police arrested R Subramanyam, 41, an owner of a photo studio at Warasiguda in Chilkalguda area. Betting money of Rs 13, 500, eight mobile phones, a TV, a set-top box, counting machine besides two note books were recovered from his possession.