Gambling, betting a big-time ‘business’ in Gurugram

All happening right under the police’s nose !

Gurugram, June 11 (Delhi Crown): One alleged murder and the other suicide case in Gurugram point towards involvement of a large number of misguided youths into gambling and betting on cricket, other games, or election outcomes.

On Tuesday (June 7) Manish Bhardwaj, a resident of Gurugram village, was allegedly murdered by his close friend Sunny Kant inside a car near New Colony Mode in a broad-daylight crime.

Bhardwaj was a known “bookie”, say insiders.

Two days later, 33-year-old “bookie” Arjun, alias Anoop, allegedly shot himself dead with his licensed gun at his own house in Narsinghpur as he owed a huge amount of money to others after losing badly in betting and gambling.

Pressure mounting from people claiming their money back had forced Arjun to take his own life, said a cop with the Gurugram Police.

According to sources, Bhardwaj was involved in gambling and betting, and had lent Rs 20 lakhs to Sunny. On the fateful day Bhardwaj demanded his money back and in a fit of rage Sunny fired at him inside his own vehicle and fled.

The police said the duo were also involved in other nefarious activities, including procuring fake documents from other states in order to “help” their clients for getting arms license made. They had been jailed in the past for this crime.

“It was an open secret that Manish Bhardwaj was involved in gambling and betting. He had earned quick money in the past few years and used to lead a lavish life style. Keeping guns was his hobby. He also used to lend money to others and earned quite a huge interest every month on such personal loans,” said one of his acquaintances.

Gambling and betting have become a part and parcel of life of many in Gurugram. While some manage to make huge amounts of money overnight, most of them, particularly the punters, suffer huge losses.

In many cases those who lost money had to sell off their houses and other properties in order to pay back the money they owed to the “winners” or the “bookies”.

Misguided youths, businessmen and those living in surrounding villages having crores of Rupees which they received in the form of “compensation” in lieu of their land acquired by HUDA or sold to private builders, are mostly found actively involved in gambling and betting.

Insiders say that in the villages surrounding Gurugram there is hardly any house left in which none is involved in gambling or betting. Stories of many of them losing crores of rupees are galore.

Generally, in a bid to evade police action, the “bookies” operate through WhatsApp and other mobile-based applications such as Signal or Telegram, etc. To ensure more “safety and security” most of them even pay “protection money” to the local police, say the insiders. Hardly one gets to hear about any raids on the hideouts or dens of such “bookies” in Gurugram!

Recently, three brothers (two real brothers and one cousin) engaged in medicines’ business at Jharsa Road ran away overnight, and are still underground.

“All the three owed around Rs 10-12 crores to a large number of people, including medicines suppliers/whole-sellers. They lost a big chunk of money in gambling/betting. Such incidents, wherein people went underground overnight due to huge debts on their heads, are galore in Gurugram,” said an owner of a drugs-store in Gurugram on the condition of anonymity.

One such family had also run away from their house in Sector-7 after a “bookie” in their family started getting death threats as he owed a lot of money.