Football Betting Scam: Chinese ‘Fraudster’ Dupes 1,200 in Gujarat and UP of Rs 1,400 crore

It was an app-based ‘football’ betting scam. It lasted all of 10 days before the app disappeared. So did the mastermind who had been in Gujarat since 2020, says Gujarat police; but by then 1,200 gullible and greedy people in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh had lost Rs 1,400 Cr. The investigation is going on. Nine people have been arrested. The swindled amount, it is estimated, can go up to Rs 5000 cr.

Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, the sensational revelation by Gujarat police did not make it to TV news on Thursday. The report is largely missing on Friday morning in most prominent newspapers. The two outlets which did carry the briefing by the police, however, tried very hard to play it down.

But questions abound. Why Gujarat? Why a Chinese ‘fraudster’ and not someone else? Why and how was he in Gujarat even after the Galwan clashes in 2020? How was the money repatriated abroad? How is it that the security and intelligence agencies did not even get a whiff of it?

The news blackout is even more surprising because Congress MP Jairam Ramesh had issued a scathing post on X (Twitter) late in the afternoon on Thursday

“The Prime Minister is from Gujarat.

The Home Minister is from Gujarat.

The duo completely controls the BJP government in Gujarat.

The duo controls the national and state intelligence agencies. The duo controls the investigative agencies. But the duo only prioritises surveillance and targeting of political opponents, independent voices, and anyone inconvenient to their politics.

Meanwhile, a Chinese national comes to Gujarat, stays in the districts of Banaskantha and Patan, not far away from the Pakistan border, creates an illegal betting app and dupes 1200 people of Rs 1400 crore in 9 days, and just like that leaves Gujarat and India.

Are the duo incompetent or they don’t care?”

The post of Jairam Ramesh had been viewed by more than 2 lakh people by late evening. One of them, journalist Rohini Singh, commented on the microblogging site, “Bound to happen when all your agencies are busy keeping tabs on political opponents, student leaders and journalists and have little time to do real work!”

CID (crime) officers said they learnt in June 2022 that some conmen were targeting people in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh through the Dani Data app. Agra police initiated an inquiry, and the Gujarat CID (crime) team discovered links to several people in north Gujarat.

“During our investigation, we learnt that the Chinese national was in India between 2020 and 2022. He spent time in Patan and Banaskantha. He and his accomplices in Gujarat then launched the app in May 2022,” a police officer was quoted as saying in the reports.

“On an average, Uyanbe managed to filch Rs 200 crore per day, preying on people aged 15 to 75, mainly through football games,

the officer said, adding, “The app was operational for nine days before suddenly becoming non-functional. It was then that people realised that their invested money had been siphoned off.”

Nine men who had allegedly established shell companies and helped Woo move the money into them using hawala networks, have been arrested. “It is believed that these swindlers collectively embezzled a staggering Rs 5,000 crore from thousands of unsuspecting victims,” said an officer of CID (crime).

However, by the time the Gujarat police swung into action in August, 2022 after filing an FIR for cheating and various violations under the Information Technology Act, the mastermind had slipped out of India. He continues operating his network from Shenzhen, and neighbouring regions like Hong Kong and Singapore. In March, the CID (crime) cyber cell officers filed a chargesheet in the case related to the app.

In the chargesheet, police contended that Chember made the Dani-Data application. He went to Banaskantha and Patan districts, where betting on cricket is popular, and urged people to invest in the app. The app is said to have displayed live scores of European football and allowed people to place bets.

According to the reports, a look out circular (LOC) has been issued against the man, who has reportedly left the country and is believed to be in China. Police have also arrested the partners of a New Delhi-based company in which the Chinese national was a director.

The chargesheet also gives details of more than 75 bank accounts that were created.