7 held for betting on T20 matches

The Mumbai police, has in separate cases, arrested seven persons for allegedly accepting bets on T20 crickets matches for the Asia T20 cup being played in Bangladesh. In one of the cases at Meghwadi, the local police got a mobile phone on which an unidentified person was providing live feeds to the person accepting bets. This person is strongly suspected to be speaking from the stadium and is being traced.

Acting on a tip off received by police sub-inspector Ajay Chavan, a team from Meghwadi police raided a room near Pascal ground in Meghwadi area and arrested Mohammad Shoaib Jumani (43) and Udhav Bodve (22) late night on March 1.

“When we raided the place, one phone was put on loudspeaker by the accused and an unidentified person was providing live feeds as if he was seated in the stadium. Mohammad who was accepting bets was using these inputs to his advantage while accepting the bets,” said a police official.

About nine phones, a laptop, a LCD television, Rs 9,700 cash and a register with names of gamblers betting money has been seized. Mohammad confessed that he was accepting bets for over five months. The accused do not have prior criminal records.

In the second case, the Bhandup police arrested five persons for accepting bets on the Bangladesh vs Pakistan cricket match. The raid was conducted in Neptune society in Bhandup (west). The accused are Nilesh Chadwa (45), Manish Babuwa (39), Dhawal Thakkar (23), Aditya Thakkar (26) and Rajesh Girat (42).

Senior police inspector Sripad Kale of the Bhandup police said, “Two LED TV sets, three laptops and 42 mobile phones have been seized. We are checking if they have a prior criminal record.”