Jalpaiguri: IPL betting racket busted, four held

The CID on Sunday busted an IPL betting racket and arrested four persons in Jalpaiguri district. CID sources said that on a tip-off, they conducted a raid at a house at Mainaguri and arrested the four accused — Gopal Sarkar (38), Pankaj Saha (21) alias Bapi Saha, both residents of Mainaguri, Bhola Das (32) and Pravat Kangsa Banik (30) of Kotwali. The house belongs to Gopal, they said.

Gopal, who owns a shop at Mainaguri town, was the alleged mastermind of the racket. Bhola and Pravat used to allegedly place bets and were also collection agents and bookkeepers, CID sources said.

“During the raid, some incriminating documents related to betting, 10 mobile phones and over Rs 3 lakh cash were seized,” said a CID official. Officials said that the accused allegedly used different websites to conduct the betting.