Mumbai: Gambling den busted at hotel in Borivali; 37 held

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The Mumbai Police on Sunday said that it busted a gambling den operating at a hotel in the western suburbs of the city and nabbed 37 people allegedly involved in the crime, an official said, according to the PTI.

The police, in a late night operation, raided a hotel in suburban Borivali area of the city on Saturday and found gambling activities allegedly being run in four rooms of the hotel, the official said, reported the PTI.

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The police team arrested 37 persons found at the spot and seized cash to the tune of Rs 19 lakh from their possession, he said, as per the PTI.

The arrested accused are businessman and residents of different parts of the city, he said, adding that a case under the Maharashtra Gambling Prohibition Act has been registered.

Meanwhile, in an another incident in July, a businessman from Nagpur has incurred a staggering loss of Rs 58 crore in online gambling, leading to a police investigation that resulted in the discovery of a suspected bookie's involvement, the PTI reported.

The police conducted a raid at the bookie's residence in Gondia city, located 160 km away from Nagpur, and seized Rs 17 crore in cash besides 14 kg of gold from the house, the Nagpur Police had earlier said.

The accused, identified as Anant alias Sontu Jain had allegedly managed to escape just before the police arrived, according to the PTI.

The investigation revealed that Jain convinced the complainant, the businessman, to explore online gambling as a profitable avenue. Despite initial hesitance, the businessman was persuaded to invest Rs 8 lakh through a hawala merchant, the PTI had earlier reported.

Jain provided the businessman with a WhatsApp link to open an online gambling account, and after initially experiencing success, the businessman suffered significant losses, amounting to Rs 58 crore, while winning around Rs 5 crore, according to the PTI.

When the businessman grew suspicious and demanded his money back, Jain refused. The businessman then lodged a complaint with the cyber police, leading to the registration of a fraud case under the Indian Penal Code. The police subsequently raided Jain's residence, where they discovered a substantial amount of evidence, including Rs 14 crore in cash and four kilograms of gold biscuits. The exact total of the seizure is yet to be determined as the large sum of cash is being counted, as per the PTI.

(with PTI inputs)