A trio burst at the illegal venue in Karimpur, Nadia

“The trio also said they had cheated innocent people of their credit or debit card details and card verification values by posing as bank officials,” an officer reported.

The trio was using WhatsApp or Telegram for communications and allowing players to make bets. So there was a lot more going on than simple unregistered gambling activity, but it seemed to be the leading factor in these crimes.

Officials reported that this was done for the purpose of dodging the surveillance of Indian authorities and that domains of these sites are usually based in China. The criminals used payment methods like Paytm - also an attempt to stay in the clear and avoid paying any taxes. All of this was admitted by the three men upon investigation.

It seemed like an independent organization at first, but soon the officials discovered that there were more profound connections with China

“...But since we noticed several cases that registered for online illegal gambling with signs pointing to Chinese links across the country in the recent past, we took the matter seriously.” the officer added.

Earlier this June, thirteen people were also caught participating in three-card gambling games at a private property. One of them happened to be a 66-year-old Ch Narasimha Reddy, the Telangana state labor minister’s brother. And, of course, everyone in the group also got into trouble for not following COVID-19 regulations. Aside from that, Rs 1.4 lakh was seized on the premises. The money was used for betting and payouts for the winners.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to pinpoint who the victims of these crimes are, as many individuals fell for the fraud and participated in gambling activities. However, the officials are adamant about digging deeper, and getting to the very core of these crimes as they are most likely connected to a scheme much larger than this one.