Cricket bookies held; cash, mobiles seized

Vijayawada: The city police arrested a cricket betting mafia of 13 bookies and recovered one laptop, 24 mobile phones and Rs 9,800 for organising betting with apps. Two main bookies appointed 11 members to spread the network of betting.

Commissioner of Police D Gowtham Sawang on Wednesday produced 13 cricket match bookies before the media at the Command Control Room here on Wednesday. The main bookies are indentified as Potula Chandra Rao, a resident of Subbaraju Nagar under Ajit Singh Nagar police station limits, and Bomma Srinu alias Yallapu Srinivas, a resident of Radha Nagar, under the Nunna police station limits. Sawang informed that the police on specific information raided houses and busted the three gangs.

The arrested sub-bookies are Varisela Pandu, Mutta Durga Prasad alias Pandu, Alamuri Pundari Kankshaiah, Shail Ali, Sunkara Trinath, Patti Raju, Kotta Lakshman, Padala Srinivas, Veerapaneni Kalyan Chakravarti and Potina Jagadish.

Some of them are already facing criminal charges in different cases. Referring to punishment in the cricket betting cases, the Commissioner said rowdy sheets will be opened against both the bookies and punters.

He warned that stringent action would be taken and cases would be booked under the sections of 78 and 79, which is up to seven years imprisonment. The Commissioner said the police would deal very strictly with the bookies and punters.

He said these bookies are downloading the apps in their mobile phones and playing online betting. He said that the organised cricket betting network is spreading to small towns like Gudivada and Nuzvid also. He said two other main bookies belong to Vijayawada and are staying in other place, he added.