Pune Police Arrest 31 Persons For Illegal Betting On Horse Racing
Mehab Qureshi
Pune, December 12, 2020: Pune City Police has taken major action by arresting 31 people who illegally bet on horse races at the city’s racecourse on Friday.
The action was taken on the orders of Commissioner of Police Amitabh Gupta and simultaneous raids were carried out in Wanwadi, Kondhwa and Hadapsar and the operation continued till Saturday morning.
According to police, some were watching the race on TV and betting on it online. Police had received information that a large number of people were betting on horse races. Police have seized 31 mobile phones, six laptops, pen drives, landline phones, and other items, totally worth Rs 3.31 lakh. The main accused Shabbir Mohsin Khambati has also been arrested.
Later, under the guidance of Commissioner of Police Amitabh Gupta and DCP Pankaj Deshmukh, police conducted simultaneous raids in Hadapsar, Kondhwa, and Wanwadi areas. Illegal betting was taking place in the afternoon in an open space at Dobarwadi near Mahalakshmi temple in the Ghorpadi area.
“These bookies are bookkeepers who usually take bets legally at the location of race by paying taxes. However, they were doing it illegally from another location”, said DCP Deshmukh.
A judicial magistrate court has remanded the accused persons to one day police custody. A total of six cases have been registered including three with Wanwadi police station, two with Kondhwa police station and one with Hadapsar police station.
The accused have been identified as Mohsin Khambati, resident of Wanwadi, Tanmay Dattatraya Waghmare (29), resident of Koregaon Park, Rakesh Hanmant Kattamani resident of Ghorpadi village, Gopal Govind Swami (59) resident of Philip Chawl, Avinash Dilip Ingle (36), Ladaras Prabhaand Hirekaru (47), resident of Ghorpadi village, Naresh Shankardas Mulchandani (47) resident of Pune Camp, Khalid Salim Mohammad Memon (72) near Bhavani Peth, Mohammad Abdul Jafar (76) resident of Bundgarden, Taj Mohammad Ahmed Bhagat (57) resident of Yerawada, Kumar Gangaram Chikane (55) resident of Mundhwa, Vishwas Savlaram Kathe (65) resident of Sangvi, Pritpal Ramkishan Gadhi (65) resident of Dehuroad, Ravi Kumar Rajkumar Lambh (30) resident of Dhobarwadi, Santosh Raghunath Chitte (34) resident of Bibwewadi Gaothan, Prakash Vitthal Kamble (66) resident of Kondhwa, Mahin Prabhakar Hirekaru (49)resident of B.T. Kanade Road, Shafi Mohammad Sheikh, resident of Kondhwa, Manoj Vasant Pal (40) resident of BT Kavade Road, Rohit Prabhu Hirekaru (29) resident of Ghorpadi Gaon, and Ravindra Sopan Netke (31), resident of Koregaon Park has been arrested.
The raiding teams were led by Shrihari Bahirat of Khadak police station, Police Inspector Shilpa Chavan of the Crime Branch’s anti-dacoity cell, Airport Police Station Senior Inspector Gajanan Pawar and other officials from zone 4.
