Mumbai: Multi-crore cricket betting racket busted, 2 arrested

MUMBAI: Last week’s West Indies vs Bangladesh and New Zealand vs South Africa matches were the biggest draws for punters in the ICC World Cup 2019 so far. This is what the anti-narcotic cell (ANC) of the Mumbai police found when they busted a multi-crore cricket betting racket operating from a Grant Road hotel late on Saturday. They also arrested two top bookies, whose diary entries showed transactions of around Rs 14 crore in the last 11 days, an ANC official said.

After the ICC World Cup kicked off of May 30, the network of bookies is growing across the country, said sources, adding that money involved is an estimated Rs 1,000-1,500 crore per match.
On Saturday, following a tip-off, ANC units of Ghatkopar and Kandivli, led by deputy commissioner of police Shivdeep Lande, raided a room on the 12th floor of Hotel Balwas and arrested Vishwas Takalkar (51), a resident of Musafir Khana in central Mumbai, and Ajay Kantraj (24) from Bengaluru, and seized eight mobile phones, a LCD TV, Rs 10,000 cash and a diary containing daily transactions. The police said that a man, identified only as Vicky, was doing a live commentary of the West Indies vs New Zealand match over the phone, based on which the duo was placing bets. As per their communication, the rate for West Indies was 78 paise for Re 1, the officer added.
“The seized diary showed that that the accused accepted bets from punters for different matches from June 11, and the amount collected during this period is Rs 14 crore,” said Lande. The book showed that the bookies accepted over Rs 1.8 crore on Australia vs Pakistan match. “On June 17, when West Indies were playing against Bangladesh, they accepted bets totalling to Rs 2.4 crore; and on June 19, during the New Zealand vs South Africa match, they took bets totalling to Rs 2.6 crore,” said an officer. Surprisingly, though there was a lot of excitment for the India vs Pakistan match on June 16, bets for only Rs 1.6 crore were placed. “This is because of India were favourites and bookies were aware of its dominance over Pakistan, especially in World Cup matches,” said the officer.
“The Rs 14-crore racket may just be the tip of the iceberg as the duo was operating from the hotel room for last 20 days. But we have got entries of only 10 days,” said an officer. In a related development, the Mulund police arrested two local bookies and one from Kutch in Gujarat.