Jamshedpur youth hangs himself over ‘loss’ in IPL betting
With Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket in full swing, the ghost of cricket betting and spot fixing came back to haunt city of Jamshedpur with the suicide of a 25-year-old youth here in Birsanagar police station area on Sunday allegedly over losing a sum of Rs 80, 000 in IPL betting.
As per locals, Garurbasa Sandip Ram was under mental stress and was enquiring about scores of the IPL match between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians till late night on Saturday over phone from his friends.
He didn’t return to his house and later Birsanagar police found him dead, hanging from a tree 300 meters from his residence at around 7.30 am Sunday morning.
Locals said Sandip Ram, originally from Katkamdih in Hazaribag, worked in Rohit Fast Food shop here near Telco Plaza Market owned by Buddheswar Gorai and lived alone in a rented house in Niche Tollah in Garurbasa.
“He used to bet regularly and on Saturday he had placed Rs 80, 000 on Chennai Super Kings, but the team lost and he lost all his money,” a local said.
Police picked up his few friends for questioning and some of his friends reportedly confirmed about Sandip’s addiction for IPL betting, who said he even used to take loans for betting. Sources said his friends told police that he had loan over Rs 80, 000 pending on him because of his betting habit. Birsanagar officerin-charge (OC) Upendra Kumar Singh, however, said they have so far not found any evidence supporting the claims of the local people. “Our preliminary investigation found he had a loan of Rs 2000 pending on him and he used to work at the fast food shop for a daily wage of Rs 200. He did make some calls enquiring about IPL match status till 11 pm on Saturday night but that can’t be evidence enough,” said Singh.
Singh further said they were investigating from every angle and they have not even found any chit or such written documentary evidence. “He hanged himself at around 4 am on Sunday. We have detained his friends and questioning them,” added Singh. Sources said the city cricket betting syndicate was active in Mango, Sonari, Birsanagar, Jugsalai, Kadma and Dhatkidih area.
The city police, however, came under fire for alleged ‘leniency’ towards cricket betting syndicates in the city despite a trail of violence unleashed by these bookies. IPL betting and spot fixing had cast its deadly shadow on the steel city with a youth Rahul Chabra (22) being shot at by the bookies allegedly over pending payments of Rs 7 lakh here in Jamshedpur couple of years back. Another college student Shahid Akhtar was shot for failing to pay up due betting money of ₹6,000 to the bookies here at Munshi Mohalla (Mango) on April 27, 2014, while a youth in Musaboni was murdered during IPL-5 and city-boy Nitin Khirwal’s committed suicide during IPL-6.
Police in subsequent raids have seized ₹3 lakh cash, 35 cell phones and laptops from a betting den in Jugsalai.
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