Notorious bookie arrested

Anantapur: Notorious bookie Prodduturu Narasimha and four others were arrested by Anantapur police. They also recovered a lap top, 10 cell phones and Rs 20 lakh in cash. A special police headed by special branch DSP C M Gangaiah and Dharmavaram DSP Venugopal nabbed the most wanted bookie in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Superintendent of police Rajasekhar Babu revealed that the Yala Narasimhulu alias Narasimha used state-of-the-art technology to carry out the clandestine operations. “He earned crores of rupees by looting the curious cricket lovers,” the SP added.

The other arrested include B Girisham, Marthala Subbareddy, Bedaduri Shivaramanjula Reddy and Bellary Jeevaratnam.
Narasimha the prime accused started cricket betting with Rs100 and now has properties worth crores of rupees across the State. He started his operations in Proddutur, which gradually spread across the south India.

Earlier, he was arrested by Panjagutta police. After his release, he began evading arrest by frequently changing the venue of his operations.

Later, he came in contact with Ankola, a popular bookie and launched online operations with his help. According to rough estimates, Narasimha used to earn Rs 10 - 15 lakh per day.

Initially he secured a communicator box, with 25 telephone lines, and after getting in contact with a Bhimavaram-based bookie Bhimavaram Shivaji, he acquired another communicator box from Mumbai and increased his phone lines to 52 lines and established his empire.

The SP said that Narasimha has 13 bank accounts recording transactions worth Rs 8.5 crore. “We have seized Rs 24.78 lakh from the bank accounts. Narasimha revealed that 43 bookies were operating throughout the State,” he added.