Seven nabbed for gambling at eatery, owner flees

The police claimed to have cracked a gambling racket being run under the guise of a restaurant situated in the locality falling under the jurisdiction of the Division Number 3 police station here.

While over Rs 2 lakh and paraphernalia used in gambling, including a counting machine and playing cards, were recovered from seven gamblers arrested from the scene on Wednesday, Arun Kumar, owner of Crispy Restaurant, who runs the racket, fled the scene.

The suspects, identified as Jogi Rai of Madhopuri, Hitesh of Daresi, Kamalpreet Singh of Madhopuri, Vivek Mohinder of Durgapuri, Dhruv Walia of SDP Colony, Sambhav Kumar of Daresi and Jaskaran Jhaba of Jhabba village in Ferozepur district, were nabbed by police officials, led by Sulakhan Singh.

Commissioner of Police Swapan Sharma said officials posted at the Division 3 police station had booked Arun Kumar, owner of Crispy Restaurant, and seven other persons under various sections of the Gambling Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on Wednesday and nabbed seven of them for allegedly gambling at the eatery. However, the owner of the restaurant succeeded in fleeing the scene.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the Arun had been running the gambling racket under the guise of his restaurant for a long time. The police are yet to ascertain the identity of his accomplice, if any, who provides customers for the illegal activity.