Chembur no longer haven for bookies

After the arrest of key bookie Vinod Asrani in J Dey's murder case, cops have launched a drive to clean up punters from the Chhota Rajan gang stronghold

Just a month after Vinod Asrani alias Vinod Chembur was arrested in connection with MiD DAY journalist
J Dey's murder, cops have launched a drive to nab bookies in the area.

In the first raid in the area on Wednesday, cops arrested three bookies and seized Rs 3.4 lakh in cash, 2 television sets, 10 mobile phones, and a telephone diary with contacts and punter codes.


Suresh Gala

The Chembur police raided Gala Motors and arrested three people, Sameer Thakkar (27), Suresh Gala (42) and Praveen Lalan (41), who were betting on the ongoing India England series.

Bhimdev Rathod, senior inspector said, "We seized cash amounting to Rs 3.4 lakh, 10 mobile phones and two television sets from their possession.
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We have also found a diary with the names and details of other bookies, but the entries are in code language."

The police have registered a case under Sections 420 (cheating), 466 (forgery of record of court or of public register), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the IPC and other sections. They accused were produced in court and were remanded to police custody for two days.

According to crime branch sources, Vinod was a gambler who enjoyed the support of both Bada Rajan and later Chhota Rajan. He was the key operative for the gang in the area and handled all the finance and accounts of their deals.

Bookie informs
An insider bookie told MiD DAY that, "Chembur is operated by bigger bookies on the command of Chhota Rajan. Vinod usually collected the winning amount, but if they lost, the money would be waived off after they requested Rajan to make a phone call."u00a0