Ghaziabad, Dec 15 (IANS) Three people were arrested in Ghaziabad’s Indirapuram area Tuesday for allegedly running a massive betting racket on cricket matches.
The three were identified as Sandeep Gupta, 25, Nikhil Singhal, 26, and Satish Sharma, 25. They were gambling over the India-Sri Lanka One-Day International match played in Rajkot Tuesday.

“We received information that some persons were gambling with a huge sum in an apartment (E-1001) at Jaipuria Sunrise Greens in Indirapuram. We immediately raided the spot,” Indirapuram police station inspector Rajesh Dwivedi said.

He said the three were involved in betting for over last one year. “They have confessed to have 30 more people in their betting network. We are trying to find them,” the inspector said.

For every one rupee, the gamblers earned Rs.10 if Sri Lanka won the match while for India’s victory, they had only earned four paise on each rupee bet.

“We had bet over Rs. 50,000 till the the match’s lunch break. More was to be staked afterwards,” Gupta, believed to be the mastermind behind the racket, said.

“There were some big dealers across various parts in India that asked us to bet and had backed us with adequate amounts but majority of our customers were from NCR. We mainly operated in areas bordering Delhi like Indirapuram, Vaishali, Ghazipur, Shahdara, Surya Nagar and Vivek Vihar, and used to change places of betting frequently. On Tuesday, we were playing for the first time in Indirapuram,” he added.

The police seized 16 mobile phones, a laptop, a TV and some documents with calculations about the staked amount.