Gorakhpur: An inter-state cyber fraud and online betting racket operating through an illegal gaming portal was busted in the city with the arrest of five persons from a rented accommodation in Shahpur area on Thursday.According to police, the gang was running a branch of the ‘Ready Anna’ gaming portal and luring people into online betting while routing transactions through mule bank accounts opened in the names of different individuals.SP City Nimish Patil said the arrests were made during a raid conducted jointly by Shahpur police and the cyber cell at a house near the water tank in Semra No. 1 locality. The accused had been living there on rent for the past six months, suspected to be linked to a wider network operating across multiple states.Police identified those arrested as LLB final year student Nitish Singh and Abhay Kumar Singh, resident of Deoria district; Wajid Chaudhary and Sahil Chaudhary from Muzaffarnagar and Munna Kumar from Siwan district, Bihar.The other four accused are under graduate students.Police said the accused purchased the betting portal’s panel rights and were handling deposits and withdrawals through multiple bank accounts.During interrogation, they admitted that transactions worth several lakh rupees were carried out daily, with proceeds shared among gang members.Police seized 23 mobile phones, three laptops, a mini laptop, three tablets, 11 ATM cards, 16 bank passbooks, a biometric device, a router, power banks and other documents from the premises.The alleged kingpins, Sanjeev Singh, Nitish Pratap Singh and Sunish Kumar Singh, are absconding. Police said efforts are underway to trace them and uncover the gang’s wider operations.
