AHMEDABAD: A gambling den was busted at Manpasand Gymkhana in Dariapur’s Mota Waghjipura area and its owner, along with 26 others, arrested in a late-night raid by the city crime branch team on Sunday.
Interestingly, the State Monitoring Cell (SMC) of Gujarat police had in July 2021 raided a gambling den operating from the same premises and had arrested 183 accused.
Articles worth Rs 11 lakh were also seized in the raid, considered one of the biggest in city police’s records. However, gambling resumed soon after this raid.
Crime branch said that police sub-inspector BU Morima received a tip-off that Mota Waghjipura resident Govind Patel alias Gamo, 53, had resumed gambling operations at the same place, and was covering it up as a venue for skill-based games. The tipoff received by the police said that people had gathered to play a card game called Marriage For Money for Rs 20 a point.
A team led by PI JH Sindhav raided the spot and caught 27 people including Patel, a local goon and Yusuf Khan Pathan alias Yusuf Laplap, 62, former aide of slain the gangster, Latif.
According to police, Pathan had earlier been arrested in a gambling case filed with Karanj police. Patel had also been arrested in 2017 during a Prevention of Crime Branch (PCB) raid on the premises and later in 2021 in an SMC raid.
Police sources said while there were regular tipoffs on Patel, cops had been unable to catch him red-handed.
The accused have been booked under Prevention of Gambling Act and are investigating further.
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