<![CDATA[In a major catch, the North Zone police arrested a 13-member cricket betting gang, which allegedly has links with the neighbouring States and some foreign countries. Police Commissioner Mr.D. Gautam Sawang told that the Kingpin of the gang, Pothula Purnachandra Rao, a criminal with a long record of serious crime , and six bookies were arrested earlier on similar charges. The police seized 24 mobile phones, a laptop and Rs.9,800 cash from them. An engineering student Gurram Teju of Satyanarayanapuram in the city, who was allegedly addicted to cricket betting, reportedly committed suicide by jumping into the sea at Visakhapatnam recently, as he suffered huge losses. He was pursuing final B. Tech in Koneru Lakshmaiah University (KLU), the Commissioner told. Mr. Sawang told Purnachandra Rao was operating a website for cricket betting, and created many bookies, through which money was collected from punters. The accused were doing regular online betting through the main bookies, who were watching from the ground and other bookies through some Apps cricket mazaa’, ‘crick buzz’,cricket live line’ and many others. Joint Commissioner of Police B.V. Ramana Kumar told that the arrested include V. Pandu, M. Durga Prasad, and sub-bookies A. Pundari Kakshaiah, Shaik Ali Jaan, Y Srinivas, S. Trinadh, P Raju, K. Lakshman, P. Srinivas, V. Kalyan Chakravarthy, Md. Imran and P. Jagadish Anand, all natives of the city. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Mr.T.K. Rana told that, We suspect that Purnachandra Rao, who was involved with the cricket betting mafia for the last eight years, visited China, Malaysia and other countries and has links with foreign bookies. The accused are chronic ganja peddlers and we are trying to find out the suppliers of the contraband" .]]>
