Hyderabad, September 05: Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations took a sour and embarrassing turn for a group of top businessmen including prominent jewelers in the city when the cops busted their gambling den located bang behind a Ganesh pandal in Basheerbagh in the late hours of Saturday. Seven people including two organizers were arrested playing cards and tokens made of ivory was seized from the den and the cops are on the lookout for seven others identified so far as being part of the gambling.
Acting on a tip-off , Saifabad police supported by two Rakshaks and Lake Police descended on Palace Colony in Basheerbagh at around 11.40 pm on Saturday. According to the police, the gambling den was located in a secret place behind the temporary shopping malls next to the Ganesh pandal raised in the common space around four apartments , Shriniketan, Shivdham, US Residency and Legend Apartments, in Palace Colony.
Around midnight, the cops entered the den which was camouflaged in an enclosure decorated with green coloured velvet curtains. “There were 30-odd tables and each table had about 6-8 people. The entire hall was made comfortable with the help of six airconditioners. The people were playing three cards, roulette and poker with ivory coins that they had to purchase from the counter. As per our preliminary information, a professional group from Mumbai was roped in to conduct the gambling,” said police sources. This was corroborated by some eyewitnesses who talked to TOI on conditions of anonymity.
The moment the cops entered the den, the people inside continued with their activities on the assumption that the police had come to the premises to tell the DJ to wind up playing his loud music. However, within seconds, they realized it was a raid and all hell broke loose. Some movers and shakers pleaded with the cops to settle the matter on the spot, but did not find the latter in a cooperative mood. Some of those found gambling managed to escape in the melee, said sources.
According to the police, the gambling began on September 1, the beginning of Ganesh Chaturthi, and would have continued till the immersion day. The gambling would begin around 8 pm and continue till late in the night. On the day of the raid, some Rs 2 crore had already changed hands, said police sources. Apparently , one person who had lost heavily in the last two days of gambling there tipped off the cops.
A majority of the people involved in the gambling were city jewelers having outlets at Banjara Hills, Somajiguda, Abids and Basheer Bagh, besides clothes and grain merchants, most of them belonging to a certain business community. A case was booked under the AP Gaming Act against the seven arrested who were produced before a magistrate at his Marredpally residence on Sunday afternoon. All the seven were bailed out by a criminal lawyer hailing from Palace Colony in Basheer bagh, where the den was located.
Indications are that for Diwali, the gamblers would prefer to fly to Goa rather than be subjected to harassment by the Hyderabad police. Those arrested and released on bail were: Naval Kishore Agarwal, Pranav Agarwal , Aman Agarwal, Nitesh Ahuja, Ram Avatar Agarwal, Naresh Kumar Agarwal and Ritesh Agarwal.
-Courtesy: TOI