Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
Five highly educated young men from the city, in collaboration with gangs from Chhattisgarh and Delhi, had set up a bogus online gaming and betting centre. However, they were not running this racket entirely on their own. According to officials, the franchise model for these gambling websites is operated with a percentage of revenue being given to the main operators based in Dubai and other parts of the country. Through such websites and apps, transactions worth billions of rupees are carried out. All these transactions are done through hawala channels, and these platforms are sometimes misused for anti-national activities. High-ranking officials said that the exposure of such rakes is due to the Central Intelligence Agencies tracing the websites and the bank accounts being used.
At Kumbhephal, posing as software engineers, they had rented a row house and were running digital gambling on 40 different casino games, both nationally and internationally, 24 hours a day. The centre, which had started a month ago, was raided on Wednesday night by local crime branch police inspector Vijaysingh Rajput, on the suggestion of superintendent of police (SP) Dr Vinay Kumar Rathod.
Those arrested include Suraj Kiran Singh Pachlore (26, Police Colony, N-7), Pranav Pralhad Mankar (26, Avishkar Colony), Mahendra Vinayak Navgrah (26, Swami Vivekanandnagar, N-12), Pratik Nitin More (26, Pratapgadnagar, N-9), Saurabh Rajendra Mahale (27, Bhavaninagar, Old Mondha), Rahul Shivnath Danseena (20), Surajkumar Yadav (25), Rohan Bishkumar (27) and Shahadab Khan Vakil Khan (28, Chhattisgarh).
All the accused come from well-educated families. Pachlore had been working in Delhi a few months ago and during that time came into contact with the operators of this fraud. Shahadab’s senior operators reportedly set up the entire operation and provided necessary websites and IDs.
Racket exposed due to Central Intelligence agencies
Even after the government banned such operations, hundreds of similar websites continue to run across the country. These gambling sites are often used to send black money abroad. Hence, the Central Intelligence agencies monitor such activities and online gambling websites using foreign servers. Information regarding the Kumbhephal operation also surfaced through this surveillance.
Why the rural area?
Previously, two international gambling rackets were exposed in the city, where young cyber criminals operating from city hotels were diverting money collected fraudulently through various bank accounts. Police raided those within a few days. In contrast, rural areas have neglected settlements, making it difficult for police to obtain information. Hence, Pachlore and others chose a row house in the Kumbhephal area, where rent was also lower than in the city.
Chhattisgarh team dispatched
The four accused from Chhattisgarh are being thoroughly interrogated. Their other accomplices are also active in Chhattisgarh, and the racket reportedly has centres in Kumbhephal and other cities as well. A team was dispatched to Chhattisgarh on Friday to trace them, sources said.