From an innocuous public call office hooked illegally to 20 STD and ISD lines in teeming Zaveri Bazaar, bookie Shobhan Subhashchandra Mehta allegedly ran a multi-crore international betting ring — for Rs 1,100 a month. That was the bill amount paid to MTNL in January and February by R.B. Communications, the PCO that the police said was connected through an illegal telephone exchange to bookies in Pakistan, Dubai and other parts of the world. The PCO was raided by the police on February 4 and the owner, Ramesh Bajarangilal Vyas, was taken into custody and later released. When contacted, Vyas denied all the allegations. ‘‘I don’t have any connections with the bookies. I am running a legal business,’’ he said. ‘‘It was a flaw on the part of the police to raid (me) without thinking.’’ Illegal telephone connections and bookies in Mumbai are linked with the murky world of transnational betting—and now, as police allege, match-fixing. ‘‘I have been in this business for over 15 years now and I haven’t done anything that is illegal,’’ said Vyas. ‘‘This is the only business I had and now it’s busted.’’ The haul
