28 GAMBLERS HELD, ` 2.68 LAKH SEIZED

LUCKNOW: The city police arrested 28 gamblers from separate parts of the state capital during raids at five places on Diwali day. The cops seized over ` 2.68 lakh from the gamblers.

The biggest catch was made in Vibhuti Khand where eight people, Taufiq, Madan, Arjun, Bunty, Gaurav Singh, Sandeep Singh, Mohd Arif and Sarwan Tiwari were arrested. They were gambling in a park near Green Land Public School during the wee hours on Thursday. About ` 2.6 lakh was recovered from them.

“The raid was carried out after a tip-off by some locals about gambling at a public place. We reached there after forming two separate teams and held them by surrounding them from two sides,” said station officer of Vibhutikhand police station OP Tiwari.

Similar raids were carried out at two different places in Gosaiganj on Friday afternoon. In the first, six people were arrested while playing cards at a public place and about ` 2,450 was recovered from their possession.

Those arrested were identified as Gangaram, Manohar, Suresh Kumar, Neeraj Kumar, Ram Khelawan and Nandlal.

In another raid, the Gosaiganj police arrested Vijay Kumar Rawat, Naomilal, Maikulal, Dharm end ra Kumar and Saurabh Verma from Amethi town area and recovered over ` 1,020 from their possession.

Similarly, five persons were arrested while gambling inside an abandoned house near Kalidevi temple in Aliganj and ` 3,000 was recovered from their possession.

Those arrested were Amar Sahu, Ashish Sharma, Akash Singh, Prem Kumar and Rohit Shukla.

In the second catch in Aliganj, the police arrested Mohd Nazim, Ram Narain, Mohd Wakeel and Prem Kumar from another house near Kali Devi temple and recovered ` 2330 from them.