A day after Tamil Nadu Police exposed a betting racket on IPL matches with the arrest of six bookies and recovery of Rs 14 lakh in Chennai, three persons allegedly involved in it were held from various parts of this city today, taking the total number nabbed to nine.
Police, acting on specific information, raided the house of a man at Ponniahrajapuram area and seized Rs five lakh in cash reportedly used for betting.
With contacts in Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi, Lakshmanan was allegedly acting as a bookie and paying double the money on bets, like runs being scored in an over, total runs scored by the team in a match and mode of wickets, they said.
Based on information provided by him, two more persons were arrested from diffrent parts of the city and Rs 40,000 in cash seized from one of them, police said.
The duo were working as sub-agents of Lakshmanan and collected and distributed betting money, they said.
Earlier, Tamil Nadu police said they have zeroed-in on the head of the bookies in Chennai, who is absconding.
They also said efforts were on to find the mastermind of the racket, said to be operating from Delhi.
The arrests of the six bookies in Chennai yesterday followed searches at 13 locations across the city based on a tip off and came a day after three Rajasthan Royal cricketers, including pacer Sreesanth and 11 bookies, were nabbed by Delhi police in the spot-fixing scandal.
Police had said in Chennai that the arrests came after investigations showed they were being given instructions from someone "supervising them" from Delhi and that call records had been traced to Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.
