The City police raided the bungalow of a notorious bookie involved in an on-line gaming fraud in Gondia and seized a staggering Rs 17 crore in cash, 14 kg of gold and 200 kg of silver collectively worth Rs 27 crore from the premises on Saturday. The accused, identified as Anant alias Sontu Navratan Jain (40) from Civil Lines, Gondia, allegedly defrauded many people of crores of rupees through an on-line application called ‘Diamond Exchange dot com.’ Commissioner of Police (CP) Amitesh Kumar said that the fraud came to light after a victim, a businessman with interests in grain and transport, approached the police. The businessman had affection for gambling and was introduced to the accused, Sontu, by two traders from the city. Sontu allegedly convinced the victim to gamble on his on-line gaming application, providing him with a username ID and password after taking an initial amount of Rs 8.50 lakh.

 

The doctored app was accessed only after clicking a link provided by Sontu. Initially, the businessman managed to register some wins, which fueled his addiction to gambling. Subsequently, he played games worth a staggering Rs 77 crore on the ‘Diamond Exchange dot com’ application. He had borrowed substantial sums from friends and relatives to fund his gambling habit. However, he later realised that the application was designed to manipulate results, ensuring that the player always lost, said CP Kumar. Feeling cheated and desperate to recoup his losses, the businessman demanded Sontu to return his money, but the latter refused. Sontu had even threatened the victim to kill him if he would not repay the remaining amount of Rs 40 lakh. Somehow, the victim managed Rs 40 lakh from friends and transferred to Sontu through a hawala trader last week. Depressed over the deteriorating financial situation, the victim, whose son studying at IIT Kanpur, attempted suicide by consuming sleeping pills.