A gang, which set up fake ‘IPL’ matches at a farm in Gujarat village accepted bets from Russian punters situated in cities like Tver, Voronezh, and Moscow. The said cricket matches were broadcast live over a Youtube channel labelled ‘IPL’ for over a fortnight, according to a report in The Times of India.
The fake matches began three weeks after the real IPL concluded, thereby making the grand fraud even more audacious. All it took for the real-life con caper to be executed were 21 farm labourers and unemployed youths from the village, who took turns wearing jerseys of Chennai Super Kings, Gujarat Titans, and Mumbai Indians. The unemployed youths and farm labourers even did umpiring and flaunted their walkie-talkies in front of 5 HD cameras. To make the ambience authentic to the audience sitting in Russia, crowd noise sound effects were downloaded from the internet.
A ‘commentator’ from Meerut with a knack for mimicking Harsha Bhogale was also used, who added to the feel of the fake tournament. The Russian punters then started betting their roubles on the Telegram channel set up by the gang of cons.
Four people have been arrested so far by Mehsana police, who are now investigating the hawala channel that was used to keep the con alive. The chief organiser has been identified as Shoeb Davda, who returned to Molipur after working for eight months in a Russian pub, is known for taking bets.
“Shoeb hired the farm of Ghulam Masih and installed halogen lights. He also readied 21 farm labourers and promised them Rs 400 each per match. He then hired cameramen and bought t-shirts of IPL teams”, a police official said.
Chief organiser Shoeb later revealed to the cops that he met Asif Mohammed, the mastermind of the con job while working in the pub. Russian punters were introduced to the nuances of cricket in the pub by Asif.
The first instalment of bets from Russia amounting to Rs 3 lakh had just been delivered when they were caught.
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