Two cricket betting racket accused sent to police custody

A local court today remanded two alleged bookies to police custody in connection with an international cricket betting racket estimated to be worth Rs 4,000 crore, a police official said here.
"Two bookies Tommy Patel and Kiran Mala, arrested by the city police on April 11, were produced before a local court today, which granted a one-day police remand," Deputy Police Commissioner (North Zone) Lina Patil told PTI.
On March 19, Enforcement Directorate (ED) had busted the racket as well as arrested Mala and Patel from a farmhouse on the outskirts of Vadodara city, after which they received bail from a local court within two days.

Later, ED registered a case of money laundering against them in connection with the alleged cricket betting racket.
Accordingly, the Vadodara police registered an FIR against them 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 documents) along with Section 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
According to an ED official, a case under Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) was registered and its criminal aspects are being investigated by the police, while money laundering aspects have been probed by ED.

Patel, who happens to be a BJP councillor of Unjha Municipality in Mehsana district, was arrested earlier for his alleged involvement in the Indian Premier League cricket spot fixing case in 2013.

Allegedly, Mala and Patel took bets of Rs 20 crore for each cricket World Cup match and were in touch with big bookies across the country.
ED sources said that bookies were in real time contact with bookies based in Pakistan and Dubai.
Earlier, a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Ahmedabad issued non-bailable warrants against Mala and Patel after they failed to appear before ED which was investigaing the case.