Days after the first Bollywood link in the ongoing IPL spot-fixing scandal was exposed; a film producer with a Tollywood connection was arrested for his involvement with a betting racket.
The detective department (DD), along with the special task force (STF) of the Kolkata police, late Wednesday evening arrested producer-turned-bookie with nine others from north Kolkata in connection with the ongoing IPL spot-fixing scandal.
Couple of days ago, actor Vindoo Dara Singh, the son of wrestler actor Dara Singh, was arrested for the same crime.
The producer had earned his name in Bengal film industry after producing Phire Esho Tumi, was nabbed from a rented second floor room at Gouri Bari Lane in Manicktala. He had a history of betting on the horse races. The landlord was also among the 10 arrested. Around `3,00,000, a laptop and about a dozen mobile phones were recovered from them, the sources said.
The police took the arrested to Lalbazar and interrogated them for hours.
Primary investigation suggested that they had betted on the match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. According to police sources, they had planned to bet on the playoffs as well.
On Thursday, they were produced at Sealdah court which remanded them in police custody till May 27.
Neighbours at Gouri Bari Lane claimed that they were completely clueless about this betting racket and had kept distance from them, fearing they might be the people with powerful contacts. However, some of them did name a few who frequented the office at the house.
“Some persons named Raju, Ashok and Rashbehari used to come here at regular intervals but we never interacted with them,” a neighbour said.