3 min readPuneApr 22, 2024 10:59 AM IST
First published on: Apr 22, 2024 at 10:59 AM IST
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season is on. Along with it, the cricket betting rackets are also active across the country and online.
During the IPL 2013 season, a 25-year-old engineer from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, who held an MTech degree and worked in Pune, started betting on the matches and lost Rs 7 lakh.
Upset with this, he decided to overcome the loss by faking his abduction and demanding ransom money from his father and brother-in-law. He lived in an apartment in Kasarwadi in Pimpri Chinchwad with his wife at the time.
On June 12, 2013, he left home around 9.30 am and did not return. At around 4.30 pm on the same day, he sent an SMS from his cell phone to his father and brother-in-law in Kanpur, saying he had been abducted and Rs 7 lakh must be deposited immediately to his ICICI Bank account for his release.
On June 13, he called his brother-in-law on his cell phone in the evening, saying he had been dumped in a jungle area. He again asked his brother-in-law to deposit the money in his bank account. His family members then deposited Rs 90,000 to his bank account.
Meanwhile, his father came to Pune from Kanpur on June 14, and his family then went to Bhosari police station, which was then under the Pune city police jurisdiction. The police station is now under the jurisdiction of the Pimpri Chinchwad police.
The police started an investigation immediately and conducted a technical probe into the phone calls made from the engineer’s cell phone. Based on clues obtained during the probe, the police conducted searches at Hadapsar, Kalyani Nagar, Wagholi, and Manjari areas of Pune city. They also questioned some of his friends to get clues about his possible location.
After an eight-hour-long search, the police traced him to an apartment in the Ganesh Nagar area of Wadgaon Sheri. During his interrogation, he reportedly admitted he faked his kidnapping as he needed the money to clear the losses he suffered due to betting on IPL cricket matches. The police said he had even kept his wife in the dark about his plan.
They did not arrest the man, saying there was no formal complaint filed against him by anyone and handed him over to his family after the investigation. No First Information Report (FIR) was lodged in the case.
Meanwhile, illegal cricket betting rackets are still on. Late on April 17 this year, the Pune city police arrested two people for allegedly operating a betting from an apartment in Salisbury. The police said the accused were held while they were taking bets on the IPL 2024 cricket match between Delhi Capitals and Gujarat Titans, through different websites and mobile phones. An FIR was lodged in this case at the Swargate police station.
On April 4, the Pimpri Chinchwad police arrested as many as 10 people — nine from Chhattisgarh and one from Bihar — for allegedly betting on the IPL cricket match between Gujarat Titans and Punjab Kings, from an apartment near the Millenium Mall in the Wakad area. An FIR was lodged at the Wakad police station.
Meanwhile, illegal cricket betting rackets are still on. (Representational/File Photo) 
Share
