Dabba trading, cricket betting racket busted

Ahmedabad: A team of the state monitoring cell (SMC) of Gujarat Police on Tuesday busted a dabba trading and cricket betting racket being run from an office in a commercial complex near Prahladnagar Garden.
According to the FIR filed at Anandnagar police station, the SMC received an intelligence input that one Jignesh Soni, 40, and his two aides, Kathan Patel, 29, and Harshal Soni, 34, all from Ghuma, were running in illegal dabba trading racket and accepting bets on cricket matches.
An SMC team raided the office and found Jignesh Soni working on a laptop with a mobile phone showing live bets and share market trades. Police said that they checked his devices and found that he had taken bets and trades from 11 clients, who had made transactions totalling Rs 3.72 crore.
In the adjacent office, police found Patel and Harshal Soni taking bets on cricket matches.
Police said two angadia firms, with offices at CG Road and Ashram Road, were allegedly involved in settling hawala transactions for the dabba trading and cricket betting racket.
Jignesh was convicted in a murder case filed by Khadia police 12 years ago and had spent 11 years in jail. He was released on bail in 2020. Jignesh was allegedly in contact with a bookie, Tommy Unjha, against whom around a dozen gambling cases have been filed in the past.
SMC have booked Jignesh, Harshal, Patel and seven others including Tommy Unjha in the present case.
The accused have been charged for offences under the Indian Penal Code, the Prevention of Gambling Act, the Information Technology Act and the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act.