Police on Thursday night arrested four persons from a café in north Kolkata’s Girish Park on charges of operating an illegal betting ring on IPL matches through a mobile application. The accused, aged between 27 and 30, were identified as Majeed, Shadab Ali, Adarsh Nigam and Prabhat Jaiswal.
Police said acting on a tip-off, a raid was conducted at Lord's Café on Vivekananda Road in Girish Park on Thursday night, where the accused were caught red-handed. Investigations revealed that the group had been running a betting operation during the Kolkata-Hyderabad match at Eden Gardens a few days ago.
Two other accused, Anil Poddar and Amit Damani, had previously been arrested during a similar raid in the Posta police station area in connection with the same betting network. In total, six individuals have been taken into custody so far.
The police seized five mobile phones from the arrested suspects, containing incriminating screenshots confirming the existence of the betting ring. A television used for tracking matches was also confiscated during the raid.
“The accused used mobile applications such as 'Skybyte 365,' 'Wolf 777,' 'Kerala XCH,' '11 Xplay,' and 'Gameswala' to conduct online betting. Although these applications are available on the Play Store, access to betting features is granted only after an initial payment, upon which a unique ID is issued. Bets could be placed on various aspects of the match, including the toss result, runs scored in the final six overs, and the selection of the best player. The apps allowed wagers ranging from ₹100 to ₹25,000. Additionally, bets were placed on ball-by-ball outcomes once the game commenced,” said a police officer.
According to sources in Lalbazar police headquarters, betting operators have also been using a messaging platform to facilitate IPL betting this season. “Groups become active on these platforms a few hours before a match begins, raising suspicions that the ringleaders may be operating from abroad. Investigators are currently probing potential international connections to the betting network,” said another police officer.
The case remains under investigation as authorities work to dismantle the larger betting syndicate behind these operations.
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