Organized Cricket Betting Racket Busted In City, Three Held

On a tip-off, the sleuths of the Commissioner's Task Force, Central Zone Team, busted an organized cricket betting racket and arrested three persons identified as Uday Simha Reddy, Mohd Faheemuddin and M Bhanu Prasad from the parking area of Sweekar Hotel under the Sultan Bazaar Police Station limits.

The accused were organizing betting and accepting bets from various punters for the Legends Cricket Trophy 2024 final between the New York Superstar Strikers and the Rajasthan Kings held at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, and making easy money illegally.

The police seized cash of Rs 1,50,000, two laptops, and five mobile phones (with betting apps happybetplay.com and happycricket.com installed, and used for online payments too).

The three accused are all residents of Dilsukhnagar. They have been accepting betting amounts from various punters through Google Pay, PhonePe and sometimes cash, and sharing betting IDs. On March 19, the three were caught while accepting betting amounts for the Legends Cricket Trophy match mentioned above, and incriminating material seized from their possession. The accused along with seized material were handed over to the SHO of the Sultan Bazar Police Station.

The arrests was made under the supervision of S Rashmi Perumal, IPS, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Task Force, Hyderabad, by N. Ramakrishna, Inspector, Ch. Naveen Kumar, SI and staff of Central Zone Task Force, Hyderabad.