Chinese national among 4 held for Rs 1,100cr online gambling racket

HYDERABAD: A Chinese national and three of his Indian associates have been arrested in a crackdown on an illegal online gambling racket being run by a China-based company, the police said on Thursday. The Chinese national and his associates were arrested by the Hyderabad police from Delhi on Wednesday and brought to Hyderabad on Thursday.
The development comes a day after Chinese individuals and companies were raided by income tax sleuths in Delhi, Gurugram and Noida on suspicion of laundering money.The online gambling was allegedly organised by different companies under the umbrella of China-based “Beijing T Power Company”, the police claimed, adding that transactions worth Rs 1,100 crore had been unearthed. Most of the transactions were carried out during the lockdown period.
Hyderabad police arrested Yah Hao, the online firm’s head of operations for Southeast Asia, and three Indian directors of the firm — Dheeraj Sarkar, Ankit Kapoor and Neeraj Tuli — after two men from Hyderabad lost Rs 1.64 lakh and Rs 97,000 while gambling online.
The four have been booked under IPC Sections 420 (cheating) and 120-B(conspiracy) and under the Telangana Gaming Act. Gambling is banned in Telangana and some other states.
The two youth placed bets while playing online gambling games organised by the Chinese firms. The organisers have also been accused of cheating the complainants by manipulating results.
The firms carried out transactions through two bank accounts. Though most of the money has already been transferred to different accounts, including those abroad, police were able to freeze Rs 30 crore (a day’s earnings) parked in two accounts. They claimed to have unearthed remittances overseas of Rs 110 crore so far.
“The servers of the gaming websites are based in China. Data-hosting services are cloud-based in the US but operated from China. The entire technical operation is run by the China-based directors/partners of these companies. The payments were being routed through India-based payment service providers/gateways,” Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar said at a press conference on Thursday.
Under Beijing T Power Company, several firms — Growing Infortech Pvt Ltd, Sily Consulting Services Pvt Ltd, Pan Yun Technology Services, Linkyun Technology Pvt Ltd, Dokypay Technology Pvt Ltd, SpotPay Technology India Pvt Ltd, Daisylink Financial Pvt Ltd, and Huahuo Financial Pvt Ltd — were organising betting through online games.
“Online gaming was being organised by luring prospective gamers through Telegram groups. Entry is only through reference and members who introduce a certain number of prospective players are paid a commission. On these groups, admins usually disclose the websites on which the registered members can play and place bets. However, these websites were being changed on a daily basis,” the Hyderabad police chief added.
The four are to be produced in a local court on Friday.
Telangana Gaming Act says:
“Gaming means playing a game for winnings or prizes in money or otherwise and includes playing a game of mutka or satta or online gaming for money or any other stakes and lucky board and wagering or betting, except where such wagering or betting takes place upon a horse race.”
Punishment:
For offence, 3-month to 1-year jail term besides fine of Rs 3,000
Second offence: Minimum 6-month jail term and a penalty of no less than Rs 5,000
Third offence: Minimum 1-year jail term and a penalty of no less than Rs 10,000
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