The Crime Section of the Pimpri Chinchwad Police arrested five people on Thursday for allegedly carrying out an illegal operation. online gambling and betting through “Winnadda”, a banned web application.
Hinjewadi police identified the accused as Pranay Manohar Jambhule, 26, from Wardha in Maharashtra; Durgesh Ganesh Chhediya, 20, from Chhattisgarh; Sunilkumar Chowdhary, 28, from Surat in Gujarat; Sarang Balaji Daf, 25, from Nagpur; and Mukesh Kumar Kuseram, 27, from Bihar.
Acting on a tip-off, crime department detectives raided an apartment of Life Republic society in Marunji around 10.40 pm, where the five allegedly involved in the illegal activity were found. During the raid, the police seized their mobile phones, laptops and other items, as well as some cash, worth a total of Rs 3.01 lakh.
The accused were booked under sections 318 (4) (cheating), 335 (making false documents), 336 (2), 336 (3), 338 and 340 (2) (forgery) and 3 (5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with sections of the Information Technology Act and the Maharashtra Betting Act, according to a police statement on Friday.
Police said they were looking for the kingpin who allegedly rounded up the arrested men from different parts of the country and made them run the illegal online gambling unit in the rented apartment for the last six months.
Arvind Pawar, police inspector of Crime Branch, said the accused were operating through the banned app ‘Winadda’. “The investigation has so far revealed that the accused used bank accounts under false names and fraudulently obtained SIM cards to carry out online betting and gambling financial transactions. We are investigating the bank accounts used to commit the crime. A court has remanded the accused in police custody for five days. Further investigation is underway,” he said.
Police suspect that the main accused, who is yet to be arrested, allegedly provided the bank account details, along with SIM cards, to the accused arrested for online betting and betting through the ‘WinAdda’ app.
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The main accused is believed to have contacted the arrested persons through a ‘web login’ and ordered them to transfer the money obtained from the punters and gamblers to the suspected bank accounts, police said.