Betting racket run on Rs 1100 bill

From an innocuous public call office hooked illegally to 20 STD and ISD lines in teeming Zaveri Bazaar, bookie Shobhan Subhashchandra Mehta ...

From an innocuous public call office hooked illegally to 20 STD and ISD lines in teeming Zaveri Bazaar, bookie Shobhan Subhashchandra Mehta allegedly ran a multi-crore international betting ring — for Rs 1,100 a month.

That was the bill amount paid to MTNL in January and February by R.B. Communications, the PCO that the police said was connected through an illegal telephone exchange to bookies in Pakistan, Dubai and other parts of the world.

The PCO was raided by the police on February 4 and the owner, Ramesh Bajarangilal Vyas, was taken into custody and later released. When contacted, Vyas denied all the allegations. ‘‘I don’t have any connections with the bookies. I am running a legal business,’’ he said. ‘‘It was a flaw on the part of the police to raid (me) without thinking.’’

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Illegal telephone connections and bookies in Mumbai are linked with the murky world of transnational betting—and now, as police allege, match-fixing.

‘‘I have been in this business for over 15 years now and I haven’t done anything that is illegal,’’ said Vyas. ‘‘This is the only business I had and now it’s busted.’’

	The haul

			• Some electronic goods seized from RB Communications Centre, Zaveri Bazaar, on February 4 • Five Power Supply units, two phones, six conferencing machines, internet Terminal Box • Net-to-phone device, account books, bill books, seven packs of ISD and STD bills • A Nokia handset and two Garuda connections, Rs 6,001, seven credit cards, a computer and a passport

Two of Vyas’ employees fled the scene after the raid that uncovered the illegal connections and led to bookies, who pointed investigators to the alleged kingpin — Mehta.

‘‘I am in the PCO business. Anyone can come and pay money to get a code and connection. They can call anywhere any time and I won’t have a clue,’’ Vyas added.

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Mehta (alias Shobhan Kalachowkie) was remanded to police custody till May 21 by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate D.B. Nikam at the Esplanade Court on Wednesday.

Police prosecutor Tahir Trambakwala said the police needed custody so they could find out how many people he contacted in Dubai and Pakistan to accepts bets through Vyas’ illegal telephone exchange.

Magistrate Nikam asked Mehta: ‘‘Aap ko kuch kehna hai kya (Do you have anything to say)?’’ Mehta replied, ‘‘Kuch nahi kehna hai’’ (I have nothing to say).

Crime Branch sources said that during Vyas’ interrogation, he revealed that Mehta took two ‘Garuda’ cellular connections from him to accept illegal betting on cricket matches. It was through these cellular connections and through illegal conferencing that Mehta contacted several people in Pakistan and Dubai, the sources said.

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Mehta also allegedly used the illegal telephone exchange to contact several people in Delhi and other parts of the country.
(With Dayanand Kamath and Pranati Mehra)

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