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Odisha: 5 arrested for betting on India-South Africa T-20 cricket match

KORAPUT: Police busted a cricket betting racket and arrested at least five persons, including the kingpin, and seized cash Rs 3,87,000 from their possession on Saturday night in Rayagada district.


According to police, based on intelligence inputs that online cricket betting is going on for India-South Africa T20 match, a raid was conducted at the house of one K Surya Rao of Raniguda farm in Rayagada town.

Apart from Surya, three other persons - Sagar Sahu, Jyoti Ranjan Palei and Satyabarata Pradhan - were detained for interrogation.

"During the raid we seized Rs 1,37,000, five mobile phones, three diaries and three motorcycles from the spot and all the four were brought to the police station for interrogation," said SP (Rayagada) Sarvana Vivek M.

Police said during interrogation, the quartet revealed that the kingpin of the betting racket is one P Iswar Rao of Gunupur and he operates the entire racket online. The racket was operating since long and they used various mobile applications for payment instead of cash, police said.

"A special team raided the house of Iswar at Gunupur on Friday and it recovered Rs 2, 50,000 from his possession along with one diary and a phone," the SP said.

According to the SP, the persons at Rayagada would collect money from the clients, mostly businessman and college students, for a particular cricket match and transfer it to Iswar through various online payment sites.

"We are verifying the seized diaries and investigation is on to ascertain whether more people are involved in the racket," the SP said.

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