Gambling racket busted at MG Road hotel, 58 arrested

A case under sections 3 (penalty for owning or keeping or having charge of a gaming house) and 4 (penalty for being found in gaming house) of the Delhi Public Gambling Act has been registered at Vasant Kunj South police station.

Among the arrested are the two kingpins of the racket — Mehrauli resident Sajid (35) and Vasant Kunj resident Dinesh Kumar (40). Another key accused, Jagjeet, who police claimed wasn’t at the hotel during the raid, is absconding. Police have also arrested the hotel’s two managers.

“The men had a WhatsApp group with at least 40 members and every few days, they would update where the next big event was. They never shared the name of the hotel where the event would take place. They would share a nearby location and escort the players to the hotel from there,” said DCP (South West) Devender Arya.

He added that the three

men organised gambling events around Diwali. Police said that while Dinesh runs a liquor business in Haryana and owns many liquor shops in Gurgaon, Sajid is a gym owner in Mehrauli. Jagjeet, police said, is a Delhi-based realtor. “They avoided repeating the same venue. Seven flavoured hookahs have been recovered,” said Arya.

Police said, “We have recovered 6,000 gambling chips and over 50 decks of cards… The players are all aged between 30-35 years and are businessmen from Delhi-NCR. They are out on bail.”

Police said action will be taken against the hotel.