Hyderabad, Sep 24 (IANS) Telangana CID conducted raids in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab in the illegal betting apps case and arrested eight accused, a top official said.

Six teams of CID conducted raids at six locations in the three states.

Charu Sinha, Additional Director General of Police, CID, termed this as the first of its kind operation.

The CID arrested eight accused operators for conducting online betting through six betting apps and causing the public to lose large amounts of money, she said.

The accused were operating betting apps Taj0077 and Fairply.live, Andhra365, Vlbook, Telugu365 and Yes365.

Several hardware devices have been seized with huge amounts of data in the searches. Investigation continues to identify the main culprits who may be based abroad, the ADGP said.

This is the first time that the Telangana Police have conducted raids outside the state as part of its investigation into illegal betting apps.

The state police have been booking cases against celebrities for promoting illegal betting apps.

In July, the Enforcement Directorate had booked 29 celebrities in Telugu states for endorsing betting apps.

The central agency had filed an ECIR against 29 actors, influencers, and YouTubers for allegedly promoting illegal betting platforms, in violation of the Public Gambling Act, 1867.

The probe, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, was taken up based on five FIRs filed in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

The ED subsequently questioned film actors Vijay Deverakonda, Rana Daggubati, Prakash Raj and Manchu Lakshm.

Most of these celebrities were earlier booked by the Hyderabad and Cyberabad Police. The FIRs were registered against them at Panjagutta, Miyapur, Cyberabad, Suryapet, and Visakhapatnam police stations.

Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had told the State Assembly on March 26 that the government of Telangana would constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to curb betting apps and online betting.

He said the government decided not only to be alert about betting apps, online betting and online Rummy games but also to act tough against them.

Revanth Reddy said that the previous BRS government in 2017 brought a law to ban online gambling and betting, but it “failed” to effectively implement the same.

As the existing legislation provides a maximum sentence of only two years for those found involved, the Chief Minister also stated that, if necessary, the law will be amended to ensure stringent punishment to organisers and all others involved. He believes that harsh punishment would act as a deterrent to crime.

–IANS

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