15 April,2011 06:22 AM IST | | Poornima Swaminathan
Bookies in Mumbai and Thane, who have been making hay while the sun shines on the power-packed IPL season, are suddenly running helter-skelter. The reason being that the Mumbai police has cracked down on a betting syndicate.
Yesterday, the Kashimira police nabbed nine bookies who had been accepting bets for the match between Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers.
Acting on a tip-off, a police team raided the Sun And Shine hotel in Mira Road and arrested the group. The arrested accused have been identified as Bharat Jain, Gautam Jain, Satish Jain, Hemant Jain, Mahendra Jain, Mukesh Jain, Pravin Jain, Durgachand Jain and Satish Gouda.
"We have seized three laptops, 25 mobile phones, a television set and a car from the group," said K Sambatvad, assistant commissioner of police, Kashimira.u00a0
With the Mumbai police turning the heat on the flourishing bookie community operating within the city, many had to shift base to neighbouring areas like the Konkan region or the sunny beaches of Goa in order to smoothly continue operations during the IPL season.
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Far from the hawk-eyed glare of the Mumbai police, they are raking in the moolah, with an estimated turnover of Rs 2,000 crore till the semi-final matches. Needless to say, they are combining business with pleasure, in the truest sense of the term.
