Mohali Police arrest bookie who hosted fake T20 league matches

Tribune News Service
Mohali, July 6 

Mohali Police on Monday arrested bookie Ravinder Dandiwal on Monday for allegedly hosting fake T20 league games at a village in the district recently to induce people into placing bets.

Dandiwal, who is an alleged kingpin of an international tennis match-fixing racket, has been accused of having hosted a cricket match called the UVA T20 League Games at Swara village on June 29.

The racket, Senior Superintendent of Police Kuldeep Singh Chahal, allegedly involved Dandiwal using small-time players mainly from Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to play at a cricket academy in Swara, a village located about 15 km from Chandigarh.

The academy was allegedly booked from June 29 to July 5, 2020 for Rs 33,000. Dandiwal and his associates Rajesh Garg and Pankaj Arora—both of whom were arrested before Dandiwal—had made four teams for the so-called event, which was aired on Youtube, as well as various social media apps such as fancode APP, Diamond, Sky, Lotus, Tenbet, Spin, Punjab Exchange.

The so-called league gameswas shown as being held at Sri Lanka, Chahal said.  The aim, he said, was to take bets on the games and earn money.

Dandiwal has been sent to police custody for five days. Police remands of Garg and Arora meanwhile, who have been extended by two days.  Chahal said they were still investigating Chahal’s role in the event.

Board of Control for Cricket in India, the country’s apex cricketing body, is expected to send its anti-corruption unit to the city to question Dandiwal.

Pankaj Arora and some other people have been booked for cheating and criminal conspiracy, among other charges.