Criminals rob houses, use money for cricket betting

Criminals these days use canny tricks when it comes to executing their acts. The most recent example of it came from Jamshedpur where a gang of teenagers used neighborhood cricket games as a cover-up to steal valuables from houses in broad daylight and use the money to bet on T20 ties, police said on Tuesday.

In an extraordinary act of crime, The 12-member gang of mostly minors would spread in the market neighborhoods to identify households with few occupants or where the family was out of town, sources said.

Once they narrowed in on their target, six to seven people would play cricket outside, providing cover to other members of the gang who would break into the house to steal cash and other valuables.

This canny trick wouldn’t create any suspicion and also help the gang be sagacious enough to look out for approaching police.

“The 12-member gang executed at least six burglaries worth about Rs 10 lakh in broad daylight. We’re raiding for one of the kingpins who invested the looted money in cricket betting and hope to nab him soon,” said Chandan Kumar Jha, city SP.

A special police team arrested four members – all aged 15-16 years – of the gang from Bagbera on Tuesday night. Police recovered four mobile phones, four gold chains, a Nikon camera, Aadhaar Cards and Rs 11, 000 in cash.

Police said one of the gang’s kingpins and two associates were involved in the city’s cricket betting syndicates.

“We’re raiding all betting dens and have sent big bookies like Jamshed Ahmad alias Jumbo to jail, who had shot Rahul Chanbra over pending payment of Rs 72, 000 for betting during the recent Asia Cup T-20 championship in Bangladesh. We’ve also sent his partners to jail,” said Jha.

Police investigations also identified about two dozen big businessmen in the city who regularly bet Rs 2-3 crore on IPL and T-20 matches.

“The betting network is now being run through links in Kolkata, Nagpur and Mumbai,” a senior police official said.

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