Enforcement Directorate Files Chargesheet Against Seven Alleged Cricket Bookies
The ED charge sheet stated that all the seven accused were involved in accepting bets for various national as well as international cricket matches.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday, filed a charge sheet in the Rs 2,500 crore cricket betting racket against seven alleged bookies in a special court here saying they laundered this amount in four months.
In the charge sheet filed in the court of Principal District Judge A P Bhojak hearing Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases, the ED mentioned that various evidences related to money laundering were found against the seven accused, including the three who were arrested from Delhi.
The charge sheet filed on the last day of the stipulated period of 60 days named Kiran Thakkar alias Kiran Mala, Girish Patel alias Tommy Patel, Dharmendra Chauhan, Chirag Parikh, Ankush Bansal, his brother Ritesh Bansal, and Mukesh Sharma.
Of them, Kiran and Tommy were nabbed by the ED during a raid at a farmhouse in Vadodara on March 19. Later, the ED nabbed their accomplices Chauhan and Parikh. In May, the ED arrested the Bansal brothers and Sharma from Delhi and brought them here on a transit remand.
The ED charge sheet stated that all the seven accused were involved in accepting bets for various national as well as international cricket matches.
It is alleged that this syndicate made betting transactions worth more than Rs 2,500 crore using various hawala channels during four months, from December to March.
The ED also submitted documentary evidences of more than 2,000 pages along with the main charge sheet of around 40 pages. The documents included forensic reports as well as details of seizure of property worth Rs 6 crore.
The agency mentioned that the betting syndicate accepted bets for almost all kinds of cricket matches which took place across the world and transferred money using their hawala channels in Pakistan and Dubai.
According to the ED charge sheet, Kiran Mala and Tommy Patel accepted bets through mobile phones as well as through a UK-based betting website betfair.Com.
It alleged that Sharma used to own login identities of the website and gave some of these to Patel as well as Mala with the help of the Bansal brothers.
Meanwhile, Tommy Patel was granted interim bail of three weeks by the Gujarat High Court today. Patel had earlier filed a plea seeking bail on the ground of his wife's ongoing ailment.
While hearing his plea today, Justice Z K Saiyad granted him interim bail of three weeks for the treatment of his wife.