The Gujarat Police have arrested four persons in a fake Indian Premier League (IPL) betting racket in the State with the matches being staged for punters, who orchestrated them from Russia.
The fake cricket matches were played amongst farm labourers in a small village in Mehsana who pretended to be players. While a Harsha Bhogle mimic gave commentary on the match, the umpire received instructions on a walkie-talkie from Russia.
The betting was done on fake cricket matches which were shown online on YouTube.
According to the police, the entire betting racket was being operated from Russia even as farm labourers and unemployed youth played or pretended to play matches on the field.
The bets on the matches were placed from the Russian cities of Tver, Voronezh and Moscow through a Telegram channel, as per the details shared by the local police in Mehsana district.
The police have arrested Dawda Shoyeb Abdulmjeed, Sefi Mahamad Saqib Riyazuddin, Koli Mahamad Abubakar and Davda Sadiq Abudlmajeed, while the alleged mastermind has been identified as Asif Mohammad, who is apparently based in Russia.
As per details, the incident took place at a remote farm in Molipur of Mehsana district in North Gujarat where the fake tournament was launched three weeks after the IPL season ended in May.
Match was a charade
The police claimed that the entire match was a charade to carry out bets that were being placed from Russia.
To make it look like a real IPL-like cricket tournament, the “players” installed not only a cricket pitch on a farm land next to a cemetery but also “boundary lines and halogen lamps.”
For cricket players, 20 farm labourers and unemployed local youth were hired for ₹400 per game, and they were dressed in jerseys of IPL teams to pull off a near-perfect con job.
Though the cricket matches were played on the ground in the village in North Gujarat, every move was orchestrated from Russia from where Asif allegedly used to signal or instruct the umpire after which a wicket would fall on the ground, or a sixer would be hit. The umpire received his instructions on his walkie-talkie set.
According to police Iinspector Bhavesh Rathod, the accused had even set up high-resolution cameras on the field and used computer-generated graphics to display scores on a live-streaming screen on YouTube. Even crowd noise sounds were downloaded and played during the live-streaming.
The police claimed that the local mastermind is Shoeb Davda who used to work in Russia and recently returned to his native in North Gujarat, while Asif orchestrated the racket from Russia and took bets from bookies.
