New Delhi, May 14 (IANS): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is conducting search operations in four cities in connection with an IPL betting racket involving a Pakistani national.

The searches are going on in Delhi, Jaipur, Hyederabad and another city. The agency has recovered a few incriminating documents during the raids so far.

The CBI has lodged an FIR against three persons who have been identified as Dileep Kumar, a resident of Delhi's Rohini area, and Gurram Satish and Gurram Vasu, both residents of Hyderabad. The trio allegedly influenced IPL matches in 2019 on the instruction of a Pakistani handler.

They were in touch with a Pakistani national named Waqas Malik, who used to call them frequently from across the border.

The accused had allegedly opened multiple bank accounts using forged documents and by bribing bank officials to route hawala money involved in the IPL betting racket.

"A reliable information was received about a network of individuals involved in cricket betting by influencing the outcomes of Indian Premier League (IPL) matches based on inputs received from Pakistan. They were cheating the general public by inducing them for betting," a CBI official said.

The official added that a part of the money received from the general public in India on account of such betting activities was shared with their associates based in foreign countries using hawala transactions. As per the information received, the said network of individuals was involved in cricket betting since 2013.

"The trio and others were in contact with one Pakistani suspect named Waqas Malik, who contacted Kumar and Satish and some unknown persons in India using a Pakistani number. They were all part of a network involved in illegal betting activities," the CBI official said.

Kumar, Satish and Vasu used different IDs in KYC forms of the bank accounts in connivance with unknown bank officials. Transactions worth over Rs 45 lakh were found to be suspicious in one of Kumar's accounts.

This network of individuals was involved in betting in IPL matches held in 2019. They were routing the money for illegal purposes.

"The transactions of domestic deposits in the bank account of Vasu defied economic rationale. They were valued at more than Rs 5.37 crore between 2012-13 and 2019-20. The KYC documents of the suspect bank accounts were not properly scrutinised by the bank officials. Maximum cash deposited in these accounts were of pan-India nature which further substantiated the allegation of these unusual financial transactions being linked to cricket betting and other criminal activities," the official said.