TN Police nabs suspected local head of bookies

Chennai: Police today detained an absconding Tamil Nadu key suspect, believed to be the local head of bookies in the IPL betting racket unearthed by them here last week.

Prashant, for whom a search was on, was taken into custody in the city and being interrogated by the Crime Branch-CID, police said, adding, he was believed to have headed the bookies` operations in the city. Police were on the lookout for Prashant after the arrest of six bookies on Friday. Meanwhile, CBCID has also moved a city court seeking custody of four of the arrested bookies, remanded to judicial custody and lodged in Puzhal Central Prison, for further investigation, police said. The city police on May 17 busted the betting racket involving IPL matches, a day after three Rajasthan Royal cricketers including pacer S Sreesanth were arrested in the spot-fixing scandal, with the detention of six bookies and recovery of Rs 14 lakh in cash. Later, police arrested six more bookies from Coimbatore and Tirupur. Police had said the suspected mastermind behind the racket was operating from Delhi. PTI