From Worli to India, Goa is just one spot on the nation’s matka trail

PANJIM: Finding the matka trail, which operates in the underworld style, is turning out to be a big challenge for the Goa Police.

The multi-crore matka gambling business that started 1962 in Worli, Mumbai, by Kutch immigrant Kalyanji Bhagat and Ratan Khatri, has now spread its reach, controlled from outside the country.

There are more than 60,000 bookies around Goa sitting on every corner of the villages as well as urban areas including main markets. Above them there are almost 80-90 main agents who collect the bets from their respective jurisdiction. These are big fish in the matka industry which also includes very influential politicians at various levels

Social activist Kashinath Shetye who is fighting a court battle to stop the illegal gambling activity in Goa stated that matka is now in the hands of an underworld don and has links with terrorist organisations.

As per records, after an extensive drive carried out by Maharashtra Police, the matka base was shifted to Gujarat but sources within the matka circle said that it still continues from Mumbai with use of advanced technology. The Mumbai Police carried out drive against matka when it emerged that the business was funding the underworld.    

Shetye, who has filed a PIL in the High Court of Bombay at Goa,  claims that the trade is controlled from a Pakistan based server. He, however, added that the main agents are stationed in India and that too in Mumbai.

The link from a matka bookie who sits in the open to accept the bet to the main matka agent and then the wider network which spreads across the country 

and overseas can be established only if the police, bureaucracy and politicians work in tandem

Superintendent of Police Karthik Kashyap, who is heading the Crime Branch, told Herald, “The origin of matka is in Maharashtra and Gujarat, our team visited those places but police there refused to admit such a thing exists. Secondly the results are published in the websites, which we brought to the notice of all courts.”

Kashyap further said that his team had approached the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, (CERT) within the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the nodal agency which deals with cyber security threats, to track the matka trail online but they said it doesn’t come under the purview of Section 69 of IT Act where they can stop these websites.

Due to the High Court’s stringent action, the matka business has currently gone underground only in the main cities while the bets are still accepted in villages openly.

Nearly 70 percent of the population bets on matka in Goa, has now gone down due to HC’s strict action.

In 2001, matka agent Guru Pujari was shot dead at Khareband in Margao, allegedly by hired gunmen from a rival matka agent. Shockingly, a prime witness in that killing, Mohammed Pandiyal, was also shot dead in Margao while the case was under trial. As a result both murder cases ended in acquittals, raising suspicions that there could have been a police- matka don nexus in this case

Last month the HC had asked the Goa government to form a SIT (Special Investigation Team) to probe the origin on matka, but the team is yet to be formed. The Court will continue hearing the matter on September 25.