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Nagpur: With the start of lucrative IPL, the rural police and city Crime Branch on Friday cracked down on cricket bookies in Bhandara and Nagpur. The action created ripples among bigwig bookies in rural area as well as in city as over 22 people were rounded up in both the raids. Lakhs of rupees, laptops, mobile phones, TVs and other material have been seized by the cops, according sources.
The Crime Branch PI Bhedodkar and his team raided a den near Jaitala Last Bus Stop on Friday night and rounded up seven bookies namely Vishal Gharode, Mangesh Shahu, Vinay Gupta, Kartik Wadighare, Vivek Kuratkar, and Badal Madhukar Kuratkar. The raiding cops seized 20 mobile phones, two laptops, and other material collectively worth Rs 1.82 clakh.
Similarly, three special teams of Nagpur Rural Police on Friday night busted a major cricket betting racket at Bhandara city and arrested 12 persons in this connection. The bookies allegedly caught in Bhandara include Kaalu Harchandani, Govind Jaiswal, Govind Bansal, Ganesh Gangwani, Salim Bambai and Firoze. The raid was conducted as per the directives of Director General of Police(DGP) Law and Order, Bipin Bihari. Three special teams including SP Balkawade’s special squad took part in the raid. Sources informed that the DGP Law and Order Bipin Bihari got specific tip-off about illegal activities at Bhandara city. As ‘certain’ officials of Bhandara police were turning blind eye on the illegal activities, the DG L&O issued orders to Nagpur Rural Police to conduct the raid.
The raid in Bhandara was conducted when match between Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bengaluru was being played.
As the news of raids spread, bookies across Vidarbha shut down their dubious trade and went docile.
