VALPOI: Herald’s expose on its Sunday edition of the gambling operations at Sattari led to all four dens shutting down, at least temporarily. Most of the mafia heads and their partners met on Sunday evening at a den operated by Guru in Bhuipal Sattari. Gambling dons Uday Palyekar and another, who is the younger brother of a top BJP official in Goa, were not present for the meeting.
It has been reliably learnt that Palyekar, who was the Congress candidate in Siolim in 2012, had within a day not only closed down his gambling activities in Morlem Sattari but also opened a gambling den in the neighboring district of Sawantwadi in Maharashtra.
As of Monday, all the palm thatched huts have been closed and gambling operations stayed temporarily suspended. The gambling mafias have been having extended meetings at Bhuipal to tackle the matter.
On Sunday Herald, after a week-long operation in the jungles of Sattari, had reported that gambling operations were on in four palm-thatched huts where every night gamblers bet in lakhs of rupees and the turnover from all four huts would be around Rs 1 crore a night.
The dens are frequented by gamblers from Maharashtra as well as by locals.
