18 nabbed from top Jaipur hotel for betting on UP polls

The Jaipur police have arrested over a dozen bookies who had come to Jaipur allegedly to settle disputes arising from betting in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh elections.

The police arrested them from a five-star hotel in Jaipur. “The bookies included those who had sustained major losses after placing bets on the UP elections. Many of them are also dealers, who were distraught over the fact that they were being pressurised to pay up the money they had taken from other people during the elections,” said deputy commissioner of police (east) Kunwar Rashtradeep.

The police said that general perception among the betters was that the BJP was going to win around 200 seats in the election and they had placed their bets accordingly. “Many of these people lost their money when the BJP won more than 300 seats in the polls. Right from that time there was a lot of pressure on the bookies and the meeting was convened to sort out these differences,” said Rashtradeep. The police said that around 18-19 rooms were booked in a leading five-star hotel in the city, where the people attending the meeting were staying.

“Our estimate is that around 70 people attended the meeting, which took place on Thursday evening. Most of the people who stayed in the hotel were from places outside Rajasthan such as Punjab and Delhi, although many well-known bookies from various districts of Rajasthan were also present,” said the DCP.

Officials said that shortly after the meeting, 18 people were arrested. “By the time of the raid, many of the bookies had left. However, we have arrested 18 people and have booked them under section 151 (arrest to prevent the commission of cognizable offences) of CrPC. We are currently interrogating them to find their links with betting rackets,” said Rashtradeep.

The police said that they will be lodging an FIR by taking suo motu cognisance in the matter after further investigation.

“Preliminary investigation suggests that around ₹500-600 crore is involved in this betting racket,” said Rashtradeep.