With the arrest of five men and seizure of ₹3.91 crore in cash late Tuesday night, police claimed to have busted an illegal IPL-linked betting ring that used a mobile application to take bets from customers across the city and beyond.
According to officials, the alleged ringleader, Manish alias ‘Professor’ from Jabalpur, remains at large, with his last known location traced to Pune. The cash seizure, counted using three currency-counting machines, took nearly two hours to complete.
Police said the arrests followed a late-night operation after a surveillance team tracking IPL-related betting activity spotted two men running what appeared to be a live betting setup from a white car (Sonnet) under the Govindpuri bridge. When police moved in, mobile phones belonging to Kartik Lakhwani of Kaushalpur and Rajkumar of Fazalganj revealed the bethub24.com betting application, WhatsApp transaction records and customer logs. During questioning, both, said to be local businessmen, told police that the cash operations were being handled from a rented house in Kidwai Nagar.
A raid on the house led to the recovery of ₹3.91 crore, bundled in 178 packets of currency notes in denominations of ₹500, ₹200 and ₹100. Police also seized three currency-counting machines—procured from Delhi at ₹35,000 each—a counterfeit detection device, two calculators and the car (UP78 GP4757).
Also arrested at the house were Kalpesh, Ravi Nai and Vishnu, all residents of Unjha in Gujarat’s Mehsana district, who had allegedly been brought in to handle cash movement for the network.
Commissioner of police Raghubir Lal said the operation was structured and tiered.
“Kartik and Rajkumar operated as sub-agents under a master ID controlled by Manish. They handled customer onboarding, created betting accounts through the application and associated website, and managed bets. The three Gujarat-based men worked as cash carriers and were paid monthly salaries ranging from ₹13,000 to ₹20,000. Kartik also runs a butter-paper factory, which police are examining as a possible front for routing funds,” Lal said.
Police said the platform was designed not just to facilitate betting but to maximise losses for users. Customers winning amounts below ₹1 lakh were paid digitally, while higher payouts were settled in cash from the Kidwai Nagar premises, which functioned as a counting and storage hub. Officials added that the application was manipulated to ensure that customers placing large bets consistently lost beyond a certain threshold.
Manish, believed to be operating from Pune, is being tracked, police said.
The seized cash has been reported to the income tax department and will be formally handed over after the completion of legal proceedings, the commissioner said.
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