Gujarat Police arrests two bookies in multi-crore cricket betting scam

Vadodara: Gujarat Police on Saturday arrested two alleged bookies from a hotel in Rajasthan in connection with a multi-crore cricket betting racket, officials said.

"Police have arrested two bookies-- Tommy Patel and Kiran Mala-- from a hotel on Shamlaji-Udaypur highway in Rajasthan today," Special Operation Group (SOG) Police Inspector SP Vora said.

The duo had been arrested earlier by the Enforcement Directorate, but had been released on bail later.

A special court for Prevention of Money-Laundering Act (PMLA) had yesterday issued non-bailable warrants against four persons, alleged to be bookies, including Mala and Patel- as they had not cooperated in the investigation of the betting racket.

Enforcement Directorate had registered a case of money laundering against them and had frozen their bank accounts in connection with the alleged cricket betting racket.

Accordingly, Vadodara police had registered an FIR against them under Sections 418 (cheating), 419 (punishment for cheating), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 471 (using as forged document) along with 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

According to the ED official, a case under PMLA is booked and criminal aspects of it can be investigated by the police, while aspects of money-laundering have been probed by the ED.

On March 19, the ED had busted the racket and arrested Mala and Patel from a farmhouse on the outskirts of Vadodara city, but they got bail from a local court within two days.

Patel, who is a BJP councillor from Unjha municipality in Mehsana district, was arrested earlier for alleged involvement in the IPL spot fixing case in 2013.

Mala and Patel allegedly took bets of Rs 20 crore for each World Cup match and were in touch with all big bookies in the country.

According to ED sources, they were in real time contact with bookies in Pakistan and Dubai.

Recently, five policemen, including two inspectors and three constables were suspended after their involvement in the racket was discovered.