by reciprocal arrangement with Star of Mysore

Bangalore, Mar 26: Bangalore South Police arrested 11 persons in connection with cricket-betting and seized Rs. 6.5 lakh in cash, 22 mobile phones, laptop computers and a four-wheeler on Saturday.

On a tip off, Police conducted raids in Kuvempunagar, Srinagar, Hanumanthanagar and Chamarajapet Police limits and arrested Lakshmana, Vasudeva and Ajitkumar, who are learnt to be bookies and others Narayana, Ravi, Mukesh, Mahesh, Manju and Vijayakumar. The raids were conducted soon after the India-Sri Lanka match on Mar. 24.

The arrests are the indication that the bookies are active in spite of the investigations being conducted worldwide in connection with the murder of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer.

According to sources, bettings were on from the first ball of the match which mostly favoured India. The placing of bets were done through telephone, based on trust.

In Bangalore alone, more than Rs. 500 crore as betting money changed hands during India-Sri Lanka match, according to the main accused.

Many businessmen and engineers were said to be in the Police net but their names were not revealed.

DCP (South) Alok Kumar said "the gang is in constant touch with the Mumbai cricket betting mafia. The preliminary investigations revealed that they were working under Vishnu Sahani, one of the main bookies of Karnataka, who in turn is being guided by Mumbai's Jayanth Jaipuriya. Added to this, three persons were arrested in Chennai in connection with online betting, it is learnt.