The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Police on the lookout for kingpin of betting racket

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Sunday, Jul 13, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Police on the lookout for kingpin of betting racket

Marri Ramu

Venugopala Sharma was an idli stall owner at Begum Baazar

HYDERABAD: A massive hunt is on for Venugopala Sharma alias Idli Venu, the man who city police believe holds key to most of the cricket match betting rackets organises in the city.

Catching him became crucial for the Commissioner’s Task Force (South) officials since they stumbled upon leads that he has a network of bookies and operators organising the multi-crore illegal cash transactions relating to cricket betting. Picking up from the clues given by the trio arrested a few days ago, the police found that Idli Venu is the kingpin here.

Police believe he is well connected to other main cricket betting operators in Nagpur and Mumbai too.

Sources say cricket match betting racket in the country is organised at three levels.

At entry level, bookies in ‘base’ cities like Hyderabad form the first layer. They accept bets between Rs. 10 to Rs. 25 lakh.

“If the amount bet by the punter is beyond their capacity, the calls are diverted first to Nagpur. In case the bet amount is even higher, the punter would be asked to approach the main operator in Mumbai,” police sources explained.

Originally Venugopala Sharma, he got the Idli tag since he started his life as an Idli stall owner at Begum Baazar and eventually became betting racket organiser. Soon after the three bookies were arrested recently, Idli Venu went underground. Stepping up efforts to catch the kingpin, police are trying to checkmate his operations by finding out his modes of transferring money. Police believe that all bookies and betting operators prefer ‘hawala’ system to transfer money from the punters to bookies and organisers.

Hawala organisers transfer money from one part of the world to another without following the normal banking channels.

Having busted seven ‘hawala’ rackets within the past four months in the city, police believe exchanging of crores of rupees relating to cricket betting takes place through ‘hawala’ operations.

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