Chance raid on south Delhi hotel leads to casino

NEW DELHI: A PCR call about a late night Garba party led cops to a full-scale casino functioning out of Imperia Hotel on M G Road in south Delhi. During the raid early on Monday, 58 people, including businessmen who were playing, hotel managers and organisers were arrested and stake money of around Rs 11 lakh was seized by police.
According to DCP (southwest) Devender Arya, 6,000 chips, 65 mobile phones, seven hukkas and three card tables were also seized from the spot.The organisers were also accepting payments in Bitcoins and mobile wallets, apart from cash, cops found.

The casino was being operated in a very clandestine but organised manner. The schedule, for example, was being communicated through a closed WhatsApp group on day-to-day basis.
“The three kingpins — Sajid, Dinesh and Jagjeet — were not operating just from this hotel but were also randomly renting hotels every few weeks to evade arrest,” the DCP said. The organisers were careful to convey the venue of the “event” to punters individually on the day of the event only.
Officers said that they received a call about people allegedly participating in satta during a party in the hotel, after which a 20-member team led by SHO Vasant Kunj (south) Sanjeev Kumar was formed and a raid was conducted.
Though things looked normal at first, cops conducted an extensive search of the hotel during which they found a gambling den functioning out of the hotel’s basement. All 58 people present there were booked under Section 3 & 4 of the Delhi Public Gambling Act and everything was seized.
Sajid (35) is a resident of Mehrauli, while his aide, Dinesh (40) lives in Vasant Kunj. Raids are on to arrest Jagjeet alias Jaggi,police said.
Most of the arrested persons are in the age group of 30-50 and residents of south Delhi areas. Officers are now scanning the phone books of the arrested organisers to ascertain the identity of other members of the syndicate. The numbers of a few hotel managers that were found in the phone book of the prime accused are being tracked and they too will be questioned.
Till Diwali, Delhi Police will conduct surprise checks at hotels and farmhouses to check illegal activities. The premises will be sealed if such activities are found happening there, a senior officer said.