Mumbai: The local crime branch (LCB) unit of Thane (rural) police has busted an online gambling racket where players were logging into a virtual casino through innocuous video game parlours at Mira Road.
The LCB unit led by police sub-inspector Srikant Karande on Wednesday raided three such gaming parlours. While six people, including owners and managers of these establishments, have been arrested and booked under sections 420 and 294 (A) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Prevention of Gambling Act, the police team seized cash, 10 CPUs, hard disks and routers, and other gambling material collectively worth over '2 lakh.
Acting on the instructions of SP Dr Mahesh Patil, the LCB team under supervision of inspector Vyenkat Andhale and assistant police inspector Pramod Badhak, gathered information about the establishments that had obtained necessary permissions for running gaming parlours but doubled as online gambling dens.
After confirmation, the LCB team led by PSI Karande Wednesday night swooped down on three parlours i.e. Dream Video Games, Champion Video Parlour and Play Land, all located in Shanti Shopping Centre near Mira Road railway station. The arrested accused operating these dens have been identified as Syed Naeem-ul-Hassan Rizvi (41), Dinesh Karia Poojary (49), Pravin Bangera (32), Jaishankar Tangaswami Arjun (51), and Ganesh Arjun (36).
Explaining their modus operandi, PSI Karande said the operators were provided user IDs and passwords to create accounts on a gambling website which had all popular games like Teen Patti, Online Poker, Andar Bahar and Triple Fun.
