Police in South Dinajpur busted a racket involved in online betting and recovered around ₹1.34 crore from two locations on Sunday evening.
On Saturday, they arrested a teacher and another person in this connection from Gangtok.
Sources said that last month, the police arrested Pintu Ghosh, a resident of Gangarampur of the district, along with 11 others for running an illegal online betting app. Ghosh was suspected of being the mastermind of the racket.
As cops continued probing, they found out that high school teacher Apurba Sarkar and his associate Kunal Das, who are residents of Kayasthapara and Champatali areas of Gangarampur, were involved in the racket.
“Earlier, we had arrested 12 persons for online gambling. On Saturday, the teacher and his associate were arrested. Based on the information revealed by them, we have recovered ₹1,34,97,000 in all from the teacher’s house and that of his in-laws. Investigation is in progress,” said Chinmay Mittal, the SP of South Dinajpur.
Police officers probing the case said that after Ghosh’s arrest, Sarkar and Das got alerted. Sarkar reached the house of Manoj Majumdar, his father-in-law, at Raghunathpur near Balurghat town, and concealed the bulk of the cash from illegal online betting at the latter’s home.
“Sarkar’s in-laws are senior citizens. That is why he concealed the cash at their home to avoid suspicion,” said a police officer.
On Sunday, police produced Sarkar and Kunal in a local court. The court ordered them five days in police custody.
During interrogation, the duo revealed where they had concealed the cash. Based on the information, a joint team of Gangarampur and Balurghat police raided Majumdar’s house.
From there, the police recovered ₹1,17,97,000. The currency notes, mostly in 500-rupee denominations, were concealed in a truck and in the box of a bed.
Later, the police raided Sarkar’s house and found another ₹17 lakh in cash.
“We are interrogating them to find out if they have concealed any more cash anywhere else. Our officers are also checking their bank accounts,” said Dipanjan Bhattacharya, the Gangarampur sub-divisional police officer.
Teacher Sarkar refused to admit guilt. “I have been falsely implicated in the case. I am not associated with any online betting or gambling,” he said.
Senior citizen murder
A 75-year-old man, found lifeless at the foot of a staircase in his Golf Green residence in Calcutta on Saturday, was pushed down the first-floor staircase by his son-in-law twice on Friday evening, leading to fatal injuries, police alleged.
Samik Kishore Gupta, a retired state government official, was lifted from his bed on the ground floor by his son-in-law, Sanjit Das, and hurled down the staircase.
He was once more lifted and taken to the first floor, only to be thrown down again, the police said.
This happened after a quarrel between Gupta and his daughter on Friday.