Five cricket bookies taken into custody in Chennai

Chennai, May 17 (IANS) Police in Tamil Nadu took into custody five cricket bookies and seized cash, laptops and computers from them here Friday, a day after three Rajasthan Royals players were arrested in Mumbai for allegedly spot-fixing IPL matches in exchange for money.

“We raided nine places here late Thursday and early Friday and took into custody five cricket bookies. It is not match-fixing but betting. The investigation is in a preliminary stage,” an official of the Crime Branch-Crime Investigation Department (CBCID) told IANS.

“Around Rs.15 lakh (Rs.1.5 million) in cash, laptops, desktop computers and phones have been seized from the bookies,” added the official, who did not wish to be identified.

According to him, police conducted the raids after receiving a tip-off that a person was involved in betting. Around 13 teams were involved in the operation.

Some of the bookies under the scanner are absconding and police are on the lookout for them, the official said while not ruling out that some might be abroad.

Police said it would take some time to go through the documents and data in the computers seized from the bookies, who are now being questioned.

India fast bowler S. Sreesanth and his Rajasthan Royals teammates Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila were arrested by Delhi Police late Wednesday on charges of spot-fixing Indian Premier League (IPL) matches. Eleven bookies were also nabbed.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.