Team Herald
PANJIM: Despite a major matka raid for the second time in one month, the first being when SP Chandan Chaudhary had raided matka den in Pernem on June 30.
Crime Branch had arrested 29 persons and seized cell phones and computers, on Friday in Calangute after which they were all produced before the JMFC on Saturday.
The JMFC, while granting conditional bail of Rs 10,000 surety, asked all 29 accused to report to Crime Branch (CB) for a period of one week as and when required.
The 29 persons arrested had been booked under the Gambling Act, Information Technology (IT), for criminal conspiracy and cheating whereas, the main accused Prakash Savla was arrested under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
This is one of the biggest raids after the matka SIT was formed. The 29 persons arrested were involved in matka bets from all over India through mobile communication. Soon after the raid the main ‘Bombay Bazaar’ matka could not be opened.
This is for the first time that Goa’s Crime Branch had succeeded in closing down the main Bombay Bazaar matka that has operations allegedly running into crores of rupees through mobile communication.
Crime Branch sources said they had got a tipoff that matka was being run from a residential property. Accordingly surveillance was kept and the raid was conducted on Friday.
Crime Branch also exposed that the arrested members of matka gang generated numbers of main Mumbai Bazaar matka while also stating that the accused were cheating the gamblers by manipulating matka numbers.
The raid on Friday was conducted under the supervision of SP Crime Karthik Kashyap, along with PI Dattaguru Sawant, PI Prajyot Fadte, HC Santosh Govekar, Sanjay Pednekar, Datta Vernekar, Naveen Palyekar, Naveen Palyekar and Rukesh Halarnkar.
