Online betting racket busted, role of bank officials under scanner

After the Ludhiana rural police busted an online betting racket, under which suspects had been duping people under the guise of betting on illegal gambling sites, and arrested five suspects, the role of various bank officials is under the scanner for conniving with the accused in opening bank accounts to transact illegal money.

A police official said many fake bank accounts were opened by the gang members to deposit the money sent to them by gullible people. In the further investigation, the role of bank officials would be probed and they would be questioned about the opening of fake bank accounts. Gang members had also been using forged documents to open accounts and it was the duty of the bank officials to check these documents before opening accounts.

The police official added that after busting the racket, many bank accounts, in which money was received by the accused, were also frozen for investigation purposes. Most accounts were opened at banks located in small cities.

The five arrested accused were identified as Abhinav Garg (24) from Barnala; Om Prakash, alias Om (29), of Gautam Budh Nagar, Noida; Amritraj, alias Amrit (28), of Nalanda, Bihar; Vishwajit Singh (36) of Jalesar, Uttar Pradesh; and Rihan Khan (25) of Kushinagar.