Eight held for betting on cricket matches

Hyderabad: Police on Thursday claimed to have busted a cricket betting racket and arrested eight persons including collection agents who are working for the main accused.

Police seized cash worth Rs 14.42 lakh from them, besides swords and air guns. On reliable information, sleuths of Special Operation Team raided a house in APIIC Colony here and nabbed the brother duo of Mohammed Ali and Showkath Ali who indulged in cricket betting in their flat by using laptop, cell phones, and seized an amount of Rs 12,82,000, as per a statement issued by Cyberabad Police.

In pursuance of their confession, three collection agents and three punters were nabbed and a sum of Rs 1.60 lakh was seized from them. However, Shaik Mohammed Ghouse, the main bookie who was involved in cricket betting since long time during one-day international matches, is absconding along with some other accused, police said. It came to light that Ghouse is running online cricket betting at a house in Moula Ali since start of the World Cup Cricket 2015 with the help of his sons Mohammed Ali and Showkath Ali and other accused, the statement said. They used to operate the betting through different websites and all the transactions were made directly from the punters through his (Ghouse's) collection agents after contacting them through phone, police said.

Engineering graduates, businessmen and small traders were being attracted to cricket betting and after facing a huge loss of amount, some of the students resorted to committing thefts in their houses, the statement said.