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Fake IPL Organised In Gujarat Village; Russian Punters Duped

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New Delhi: A Gujarat village nearly pulled off a sophisticated con by staging a fake ‘Indian Premier League’, yes, you read it right, they even accepted bets from punters in the Russian cities of Tver, Voronezh, and Moscow.

The con came to light on Sunday when the swindle was exposed by Gujarat police in a remote area of Ahmedabad.

The act was carried out on an isolated farm in Molipur village of Mehsana district.

Meanwhile, four suspects have been arrested by the police. Reports suggest that the entire event was set up in a way that it resembled actual IPL matches in order to dupe Russian gamblers.

When the police discovered the scam, the league had reached the semifinal round already.

The fake cricket league had fake teams and jerseys of Chennai Super Kings, Gujarat Titans, Mumbai Indians, and others.

The players were 21 farm labourers and unemployed youths from the village, who were paid Rs 400 for a match.

The fake premier league featured live streaming of the games on a YouTube channel.

The group set up a Telegram channel where they fix the bets from the Russian punters, right after three weeks of the real IPL 2022 ended, and tried to make the fraud more audacious.

They set up the most flawless scam, they even did an umpire, installed five high-definition cameras to cover the game, and used fake wacky-talkies to give the appearance of genuineness.

For the pitch, the farm was prepared by clearing it out to look like a cricket field and installing the proper halogen lighting. Crowd-noise sound effects downloaded from the internet made the ambience appear authentic to the audience sitting in Russia.

For the commentator, they hired a man from Meerut who could mimic Harsha Bhogle.

The “Chief organiser” of the fraud is reportedly Shoeb Davda, who returned to Molipur after working for eight months in a Russian pub, he is famous for taking bets, and helping execute the con.

“Shoeb hired the farm of Ghulam Masih and installed halogen lights there. He readied 21 farm labourers, promising them Rs 400 per match. Next, he hired cameramen and bought t-shirts of IPL teams,” a police official was quoted in a report as saying.

Shoeb told the police that he had met Asif Mohammed, the con mastermind while working at the Russian pub. Asif introduced the Russian punters in the pub to the nuances of cricket.

 

 

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