New Delhi, June 05: Delhi Police today claimed to have smashed a high-profile gamblers' cartel by arresting 13 businessmen and professionals from a five-star hotel in a midnight raid and recovered Rs 5,34,200 in cash and tokens worth Rs 65 lakh besides a large number of liquor bottles. Acting on a tip-off, sleuths of Crime Branch raided the suite of the hotel late last night and nabbed the businessmen, professionals, property dealers, financiers and factory owners, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Dependra Pathak said today.

"Majority of the arrested accused are high-profile Delhi businessmen owning hotels, restaurants, finance companies, factory and shops," he said.

The arrested persons have been identified as Ravinder Kumar Malhotra alias Pappi, Manjeet Singh, Sumit Benarjee, Khusvinder Singh, Prabhu Dayal, Parminder Pal Singh, Amar Nath Agarwal, Jaswant Singh, Manoj, Joginder, Krishan Chand, Pawan Bajaj and S Kumar.

Besides Rs 5,34,200 in cash, the recoveries included 354 tokens of Rs 1,000 to Rs 50,000 denominations worth Rs 65 lakh, dices and liquor bottles, he said.

The people were arrested under the Delhi Gambling Act, he added.

Bureau Report