Court sends two betting case accused to three days' remand

A court here sent the two main accused in the alleged Rs 4,000-crore cricket betting racket to custody for three days.
Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Court Judge Ajitkumar Bhojak sent the two alleged bookies Kiran Mala and Tommy Patel to custody for three days, responding to an application filed by ED seeking their remand for ten days.
The prosecution agency ED, through its advocate Sudhir Gupta, sought remand of the two accused stating they were prima facie involved in the betting racket and they needed to be interrogated in custody since they were not co-operating with the probe.

International bookies could be involved in the betting racket and custodial interrogation of Mala and Patel is needed to probe that aspect, Gupta said.
Gupta told the court that evidence collected in the case need to be corraborated with statements of the other accused as well as witnesses and the duo's statements must also be taken in the betting case.
On March 26, Enforcement Directorate had registered a case of alleged money laundering against them and frozen their bank acounts in connection with the cricket betting racket.

The four accused have been charged under Section 418 (cheating), Section 419 (punishment for cheating), Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), Section 467 (forgery of valuable security), Section 471 (using forged document as genuine) along with Section 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code.

On March 19, ED had busted the racket and arrested Mala and Patel from a farmhouse on the outskirts of Vadodara city.
Later, the probe agency arrested 13 others in connection with the betting racket.