Five men were arrested from three places in the city for allegedly running online cricket betting rackets.
They were arrested on Sunday night while the India-South Africa World Cup match at the Eden Gardens was in progress, police said.
Based on a tip-off, the police picked up Abhisekh Jaiswal, 28, a resident of Banarasi Ghosh Street in Girish Park, from a cafe in the north Calcutta neighbourhood. An officer said Jaiswal was running a betting racket using two online betting apps.
“He was operating through a ‘master ID’ and had distributed IDs to different customers,” said an officer in Lalbazar.
A case has been initiated under sections of cheating and the West Bengal Gambling and Prize Competition Act.
Two more men, Arun Agarwal, 59, of Hospital Street in Bowbazar, and Pradip Barma, of Asutosh Mukherjee Road in Howrah’s Golabari, were arrested from a bar near Bentinck Street in connection with the same case. The police said they were using similar apps for betting.
In a separate case, the police acted on information and arrested Keshab Prasad Mundra, 53, of Narkeldanga Main Road, and Kalu Shaw, 34, originally from Begusarai district in Bihar. They were arrested from a flat on the fifth floor of an apartment on Narkeldanga Main Road.
An officer at Lalbazar said the raids were conducted by the anti-rowdy squad of the detective department.
“In all the cases where arrests have been made for betting, the accused were using online betting apps through which people anywhere across the globe can participate in the betting racket,” the officer said.