KANPUR: The Kanpur Police on Monday nabbed eight alleged masterminds behind a betting app, uncovering ties to an international gang running betting operations and handling cash withdrawals for the syndicate.
Police said the accused laundered cyber fraud money by transferring it to betting winners’ accounts. Over Rs 100 crore transactions were spotted in three months, with Rs 50 lakh frozen. Police commissioner Raghubir Lal said that despite being banned in India, betting was being conducted on gaming apps Lotus365, Reddy Book, KARTIKEY, and DUBAI EXH. He said police from Barra police station arrested eight individuals linked to the betting syndicate based on intelligence inputs. Interrogation revealed they were connected to an international syndicate running the betting operations. Police said that to join the gaming apps, members had to purchase IDs from masterminds based in Dubai, Delhi, and Noida. After receiving IDs, they facilitated betting. Police said the arrested members went by the name Branch-24 and formed the part of the betting app that exclusively handled money transfers to winners’ accounts.
Police said details arrived on their WhatsApp group and they transferred money to the winners’ accounts. All arrested members worked on a monthly salary of Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000. They were first trained by the fraudsters and subsequently worked as their agents. Police said several youths trapped by the gang lost lakhs of rupees and died by suicide, while thousands of families were destroyed. The accused revealed that the betting app was advertised through social media. Those who came to bet on the app were initially allowed to win small amounts but were made to lose when they placed larger bets. Police seized 26 bank account passbooks, details of 79 bank accounts, 30 active SIM cards, a car, more than Rs 50 lakh cash in the arrested members’ accounts, 25 mobile phones, and other materials from those linked to the betting app. Those arrested have been identified as Satyam Tiwari, Anmol Vishwakarma, Nitin Gupta, Abhishek Verma, Hitesh Nigam, Snehil Bajaj, Sultan Ahmad, and Naushad.
