It seems that ‘betting’ ghosts have once come to haunt the Indian Premier League. The past few months saw several cases or police crackdown which saw a number of illegal betting and fake ticket rings getting busted.
The greatest relief was that all these cases were small and sort of negligible. More fortunately, none of these incidents had any connections with the league. However, following the arrest of three bookies who were caught from a hotel in Kanpur, the ugly face of betting has returned and threatens to damage the credibility of the IPL.
The two arrested individuals coughed up the names of two Gujarat Lions cricketers who may soon face the heat of police interrogation in coming days.
Rs 40.90 lakh in cash and five mobile phones were recovered from the suspects who have been identified as Ramesh Nayan Shah a businessman from Thane, Vikas Chauhan and Ramesh Kumar who hail from Kanpur. Two men operated from the 17th floor of a hotel while Ramesh Kumar was at the Green Park stadium at the time of his arrest. Ramesh was a contracted employee whose job included putting up hoardings at the stadiums.
“The anti-corruption unit of the BCCI has been tracking activities of certain individuals, as a result of which, three suspects were arrested in Kanpur, on Thursday.”
“The Uttar Pradesh police crime branch could successfully foil the alleged betting attempts of the accused. This was an outcome of the ACU of the BCCI, having worked closely with various law enforcement agencies, who will continue further investigations, in this matter.”
Investigations have revealed that Ramesh Kumar had booked for the other two in the hotel. The police say these persons may have been successful in placing bets on the IPL game.
The man has also revealed that the original leader of the scam is some Ajmer based person by the name of Bunty. There is no concrete information related to him. Shah during his questioning is alleged to have disclosed the names of two Gujarat Lions players. This revelation poses a serious threat to the franchise’s reputation.
In a WhatsApp message sent to Bunty, Shah had said, the two are set and will do as asked. In another message, he had also said that the Gujarat Lions team would lose the match even after scoring 200 runs.
The BCCI issued a statement claiming that a betting bid was “foiled”.