Cops bust betting racket in Lucknow

Police busted a betting racket involving crores of rupees here today and arrested 10 persons in this connection, police sources said.

On a tip-off that a group of people were betting on the results of the ICC cricket finals between India and Sri Lanka, police raided two places here and seized Rs 60,000 and electronic gadgets, including mobile phones, TV sets and a tape recorder, from there, they added. A ledger with the statistics of all the champions trophy matches was also seized, they said.

DIG, Lucknow Range, Arun Kumar said that the racket was being run through mobile phones and the gang was in constant touch with ‘‘outcome forecasters’’ in Delhi and Mumbai. ‘‘We laid the trap through e-surveillance and zeroed in on them,’’ he said. The betting amount for each match was fixed in two countries in Europe and communicated here accordingly. ‘‘We know which are the countries but cannot give out their names at the moment because we want to be doubly sure before reaching a conclusion,’’ said Kumar.