What began as a father’s desperate plea to find his missing son has cracked open a transnational illegal betting network operating through sophisticated tech tools and fake identities. The police in Noida, acting on a kidnapping complaint, stumbled upon a web of crime involving forged documents, WhatsApp-powered apps, and money laundering operations channelling crores to Thailand and Dubai.
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A Ransom Call That Unravelled a Web of Deceit
Subhash Chandra of Alwar filed a police complaint on June 12, claiming his 22-year-old son Bhim Singh and 25-year-old nephew Narayan had been abducted in Greater Noida and that the kidnappers were demanding ₹7 lakh in ransom. A police team led by DCP Saad Miya Khan tracked the last known location of the duo to the White Orchid Apartments in Gaur City.
Though the duo was not found in the initial raid, four other individuals linked to Bhim were detained. Their seized items, laptops, illegal SIM cards, forged Aadhaar cards, and dozens of mobile phones would soon point to a far deeper crime than mere abduction.
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The Rudra Cric Live App: Betting in Real-Time, Laundering by Night
Interrogation revealed that the group was operating an international cricket betting syndicate through a banned app, Rudra Cric Live. The syndicate used WhatsApp to assign unique IDs to users, allowing them to place bets on live cricket events, match outcomes, run totals, and more. Initially, users were made to win to lure them into placing bigger bets, ultimately leading to losses.
The betting operations, reportedly active for over six months, were laundering nearly ₹30 lakh daily to handlers based in Thailand and Dubai. Police believe the funds moved through a complex network of transactions and shell accounts. The reach of the operation was staggering: at least 20 branches of the syndicate were found across the Delhi-NCR region alone.
The final twist came when police traced Bhim and Narayan to a flat at Radha Sky Garden, Greater Noida. Alongside two others, Himanshu and Sukhdev, they were arrested. All four confessed to using family funds, ₹10 lakh in total, on the betting platform and fabricating the kidnapping to coax their relatives into paying ransom to cover the losses.
About the author – Prakriti Jha is a student at National Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar, currently pursuing B.Sc. LL.B (Hons.) with a keen interest in the intersection of law and data science. She is passionate about exploring how legal frameworks adapt to the evolving challenges of technology and justice.