Indore Police busts an IPL betting racket
Indore Police has busted an international IPL betting racket that was running operation worth crores of rupees. The racket, reportedly, worked by stealing live telecast of the matches. This way they learnt about events happening on the ground, 8 seconds prior to TV telecast. Earlier, a fixing scandal was unearthed in 2013 which had led to the ban of Super Kings and Royals.
Can this lead to something bigger?
The people involved in this racket stole the live feeds of matches and had an eight-second head start. This 'prior knowledge' could have helped them place bets in crores of rupees as well as lure others by offering them tips. The gang owned a website called 'cbtfmagicbox.in', where the abbreviation of CBTF was 'Cricket Betting Tips for Free'.
Probe launched after Star India lodges complaint
The racket was busted by Jitendra Singh, Superintendent of the Cyber Cell (Indore Police). He launched his probe after Star India, the official broadcaster of the IPL, lodged a complaint. One of the accused was caught stealing live footage using state-of-the-art technology. A case under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and IPC has been registered and a probe is underway.
Singh believes this could involve huge amount of money
"It is surprising that the gang was issuing raw feed of IPL matches on its website prior to the TV telecast. We suspect that by taking advantage of the eight-second gap, they bet a huge amount of money on matches," SP Jitendra Singh said.
Most of the accused are believed to be outside India
Ankit Jain, an alleged agent, was arrested in Madhya Pradesh's Vidisha town. He was in contact with the kingpin Amit Majithia, a native of Gujarat. He is currently believed to be in Dubai. Other accused include Hitesh Khushlani, a Mumbai based builder and Haresh Chaudhary and his wife Poonam. The three are currently not in India.
