Fake IPL Busted: Gujarat villagers duped Russian gamblers

Source: Twitter

Rohit Sharma-led Team India are on a tour of England for a Test and three ODI and T20I match series but at the same time, there was a fake IPL season taking place in a village of Gujarat. According to a report in TOI, a bunch of labourers from Molipur village in the Mehsana district of Gujarat tried to pull off and almost succeeded in duping Russian gamblers who were interested in betting. A team of 21 labourers faked an entire season of IPL by themselves, they were taking turns as players with different jerseys. 

A fake IPL was conducted in a Gujarat village to dupe Russian punters. They had broadcasted the matches on YouTube and played with CSK, MI and GT jerseys. A commentator was involved with the talent of mimicking Harsha Bhogle to give a real feel.

— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) July 11, 2022

To make it look real one of them even disguised as famous commentator Harsha Bhogle. A labourer from Meerut was specially hired for this job. Five HD cameras and walkie-talkies were used in this fake show. They even downloaded crowd noise from the internet to improve the quality of the matches.  The matches were also broadcast on YouTube to make it look as real as possible and the money was being channelled through the Telegram platform. The tournament had also reached its knockout stage and that is when the cops tracked it and arrested the culprits for running the fake IPL. 

Police have arrested four culprits and named Shoeb Davda as the engineer of the plan. According to police official Bhavesh Rathod: “Shoeb hired the farm of Ghulam Masih and installed halogen lights there. He readied 21 farm labourers, promising them Rs 400 per match. Next, he hired cameramen and bought t-shirts of IPL teams.”

“Shoeb would take live bets over the Telegram channel. He would instruct Kolu, the umpire, over a walkie-talkie to signal fours and sixes. Kolu communicated the same to the batsman and the bowler. Acting on the instructions, the bowler would deliver a slow ball, enabling the batsman to hit it for a four or a six,” Rathod added.