Cricket betting racket busted in Jalandhar, Rs1.23 cr seized from ‘architect bookie’

In a crackdown on an illegal betting racket , the Jalandhar commissionerate police on Saturday arrested a bookie who had civil engineering and architecture diplomas and seized ₹1.23 crore from his residence in the city’s local BSF colony.

A laptop and two mobile phones being used by the accused, Sourav Verma (39), for betting have also been recovered. These will be handed over to the cyber cell for further investigations.

Commissioner of police (CP) Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said a Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) staff-1 team was tipped off while patrolling near Workshop Chowk on July 25 that Verma was running a betting racket from home and was in possession of a large amount of cash.

The CIA team then raided Verma’s house and arrested him when he was betting on the England-West Indies Test match at Manchester, UK. He was operating the racket through a ‘Z-Account’ online application.

Z-Account was an online portal for bookies where they struck deals, said additional deputy commissioner of police, Harpreet Singh Beniwal.

Beniwal said Verma had a diploma in architecture and designed housing units on contract with a team of building contractors.

His qualifications have not been verified.

The racket was run purportedly as a business, Sourav Planner, in the colony for the last few years and the money earned through betting was hidden at Verma’s home, Bhullar Added.

Police would take action after investigations against persons involved in the racket as the cyber cell was scanning the laptop and mobile phones. The income tax department had also been informed about the cash seizure, he said.

Police have registered a case under sections 13-A, 3, 67 of the Gambling Act at police station-2 in Jalandhar.

Verma will be on police remand for further investigations.