india

Updated: Apr 11, 2019 00:24 IST

With the arrest of eight people, the UP Special Task Force (STF) on Wednesday claimed to have busted an inter-state cricket betting racket active in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament.

The arrests, including of the kingpin of Uttar Pradesh leg, and four others from Kanpur; and three associates from Varanasi, were made on intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday, said senior superintendent of police (SSP) of STF Abhishek Singh.

“The kingpin Jitendra alias Jeetu has links in Dubai and has earned property worth crores of rupees through the same business,” said the STF SSP.

Jeetu’s links spread across country, including cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Ajmer and Raipur. The SSP said the STF teams had seized Rs 30.50 lakh from Kanpur and Varanasi as well as multiple instruments like betting box and one used by bookies to transmit betting rates to their associates.

Other than Jeetu, four others who were arrested from Kanpur are Ashish Kumar, Mohit, Sumit and Himanshu.

A day earlier, three persons, Ashok Singh, Sunil Pal and Vicky Khan were arrested from Varanasi. “One of Jeetu’s close associates Ajai Singh, however, managed to escape during the raid,” said the SSP.He said Jeetu’s super luxury sedan and Ajai’s SUV was also seized from the spot.

Betting box with multiple connecting lines

Explaining the modus-operandi, the SSP said the kingpin was using a newly introduced ‘betting box’ which had multiple connecting lines.

“Through the betting box, the handler could connect with as many as ten other bookies and share the betting rates and also record the conversation for further money transaction between them,” said the SSP.

He said the racketeers’ were using a specially designed online application named ‘Orange’ on which Dubai-based bookies used to share current betting trend.

“The betting box had microphone system to share the betting rates from all bookies instantly as soon as the rates are flashed on the application.”

Kingpin’s properties in several cities

The SSP STF said Jeetu had stayed in Dubai for many years and worked there as online trading agent during which he came in touch with betting racketeers. He said Jeetu started his betting operations in Uttar Pradesh after returning from Dubai and earned huge amount of wealth.

Insisting that Jeetu had purchased properties in Mumbai, Kanpur, Lucknow and Fatehpur, the SSP said that the STF was further scanning his bank accounts and other assets. Also, the STF teams were in touch with other police agencies to probe links in other states.