28 Bookie’s 24 Crore Transactions Unveiled, Money Lending Also Under Scrutiny

Two days before in the city, shocking details have emerged from the investigation of the Rajkot Crime Branch regarding a massive cricket betting racket busted on Tuesday. In the preliminary investigation, transactions worth ₹24 crores from two master IDs and the details of 28 customers involved in the betting were uncovered. The team from the Crime Branch, led by PI B.T. Gohil, seized a sudden amount of ₹11.65 lakhs from the office of a bookie named Suketu Bhuta near Astron Chowk, Bhavesh Khakhar near Hanuman Madhi, and Nishant Harish Chag from Navagam.

Arrested Bookies with Nicknames

Three bookies named Rakesh, also known as Raaklo, Tejash Rajdev, Amit Popat, also known as Montu, Deepak Khaman, and his elder brother Nirav Popat, were caught along with their associates Cherrybet.com and Magic Exchange.com. The police got suspicious when it was revealed in the initial investigation that transactions worth 5 to 7 crores were conducted, but Tejash Rajdev, the brother of the infamous Rakesh alias Raaklo, conducting financial transactions worth crores raised concerns for the police.

Arrest and Probe of Tejash Rajdev and Associates

Suketu, Bhavesh, and Nishant were caught along with Tejash Rajdev in a fast-paced operation. Upon learning about the uncovering of the cricket betting racket, Tejash Rajdev, Amit Popat, and Nirav Popat went underground. On the other hand, the police started the investigation on the IDs of the bookies. In their investigation, the police found transactions worth ₹19,98,32,642 in the ID named Cherrybet.com. Additionally, 14 petabytes of names were found in that ID.

In another investigation, transactions worth ₹3,42,36,313 were found in the ID named Magic Exchange.com. This included names like Kishan Savarkundla, Kumar Savarkundla, Mahesh Asodariya Rajkot, Raju Somania Vankanker, Nishant Chhag, Prathamesh Rajkot, Teli Amreli, K.K., L.K., Hari Rajula, Imran, Jatin, Parag, and Pankaj.

Concerns of Money Laundering and Investigation by ED

After the arrival of Tejash Rajdev, the brother of the infamous Rakesh alias Raaklo, in Saknja, if his financial transactions involving crores through the agents of his elder generation are exposed, then it will raise suspicions of money laundering and this information will also be conveyed to the ED by the Crime Branch’s ACP B.B. Basiya.