This past Sunday, Delhi police broke up an online gambling ring that was being led from a residential building in New Ashok Nagar in east Delhi in India. The bust resulted in the arrest of 14 individuals, including the alleged owner and manager of the casino, as well as 12 individuals who were identified as gamblers. The main figure behind the operation, who was only identified as “Deepak,” remains at large.
Police indicated that the gaming endeavor could be tied to a money-laundering scheme. They seized a diary containing numerous transactions and customers’ names, 10 computer systems and a small amount of cash.
Pankaj Singh, the police department’s deputy commissioner, said the department had received several tips over the course of a few days prior to the raid. When a tip on Sunday indicated that the games were in progress in the first floor of the three-story building, cops moved in and made their arrests.
Singh was quoted by DNAIndia saying, “Our team raided the flat and found 12 people gambling online. The entire flat had been turned into a makeshift casino parlour and 10 computers with Internet connections had been installed in the house solely for gambling.”
The casino’s alleged owner, Amit Guttan, and his manager, “Neeraj,” were taken into custody along with the 12 gamblers. They were all released on bail after being booked for offenses under the Delhi Public Gambling Act.
“Deepak” has been tied to a significant organized online casino scheme. He gave both Guttan and Neeraj with login credentials of an online account to a gambling website what was reportedly being used to play roulette.
The gambling group was reportedly formed through WhatsApp and regular customers recruited additional members. No outside individuals were allowed into the group. After paying an entry fee, the gamblers were provided with the password in order to play games online.
A police officer involved in the case added, “Roulette was the most popular game for these people because the winner was given a return which was 36 times the money they gambled.”
In questioning Guttan, police discovered that he had been involved in a similar activity in the past. The police officer stated, “Amit has told us that he was earlier running the online casino parlour in Noida. He had shifted it to the New Ashok Nagar flat just a fortnight ago. His customers were small-time traders, auto-mechanics among others.”
The owner of the building, Murari Lal, is also being sought by police for questioning.
