2 men held in plush Mohali society for IPL betting racket, drug dealing
Investigations revealed that the men had been living in the apartment for two months and had placed bets on around 35 cricket matches so far
Two men from Haryana were arrested at the tony Homeland Heights in Sector 70 late on Saturday evening in police raids for running a betting racket involving Indian Premier League (IPL) matches and alleged smuggling of drugs, including heroin, while two others managed to escape from the spot.
Police recovered 15 mobile phones, laptops and 570 gram heroin from their possession.
The men who were arrested were identified as Vipin of Patel Nagar in Hisar and Rakesh Manchanda from Faridabad. Tarush Dhawan of Kaithal and Malkit Singh of Kila Lal village in Gurdaspur district were absconding.
Police raided the Homeland Heights apartment after receiving a tip-off that online betting was taking place there. Rajiv Kumar, station house officer, Mataur police station and Gursher Singh Sandhu, DSP (City1), led the police team and nabbed the suspects, said Harwinder Singh Virk, superintendent of police (City), while addressing mediapersons on Sunday.
“The suspects were also involved in large scale drug smuggling,” said Virk.
Investigations revealed that the men had been living in the apartment for two months and had placed bets on around 35 cricket matches so far. They used to stake around ₹4 lakh to ₹5 lakh on a single match and carried out transactions through Google Pay and Paytm, said Satinder Singh, senior superintendent of police.
Searches are being conducted for the men who were absconding, he added.
A case under Sections 420 of the Indian Penal Code, 13, 3/67 of the Gambling Act and 21, 29-61-85 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act was registered against the suspects at the Mataur police station.
