A rural Indian police force has cracked a criminal match-fixing ring that staged a T-20 competition at a village in India, which was then broadcast through social media as if it was being held in Sri Lanka. The criminals booked the Storer Cricket Academy ground in Swara between 29 June and 5 July, holding a four team series dubbed the UVA T20 Premier League. The matches were broadcast via various applications as if they were being staged in Sri Lanka.

Police said (see Instagram post below) that criminals relied on social media applications such as Fancode APP, Diamond, Sky, Lotus, Tenbet, Spin and Punjab Exchange to earn money from the fixed games. Whilst investigating, police found that the main perpetrator, Ravinder Singh Dandiwal, had organised fraudulent tournaments for many years after forming the Cricket Club of India in 2009.

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District Police nabs 3 bookies for fraudulent telecast of matches. In a major success, the District Police led by the SSP Mr. Kuldeep Singh Chahal has 3 bookies who were involved in not only betting but were also indulging in playing fraud with the public by organizing the cricket matches in village Swara but were showing these as being held in Sri Lanka. Disclosing this here today, the SSP said that a case in this regard was registered on 02-07-20 u/s 420, 120-B IPC, 13A,-3-67 G. Act at Police Station Sadar in Kharar against Pankaj Kumar Arora and others. During the investigation by the SP (Rural), S.A.S. Nagar Ravjot Kaur Grewal, DSP Circle Kharar Pall Singh and SHO, and Police Station Sadar, Kharar Inspector Sukhbir Singh, it was revealed that the accused Pankaj Kumar Arora in league with his accomplice Goldy, booked the ground of stoker cricket academy in village swara from 29-6-20 to 5-7-20 and formed 4 teams and held a cricket series named UVA-T 20-Premier League. The said league was held in swara village but was shown as being held in Sri Lanka and relayed on various social media apps such as fancode APP, Diamond, Sky, Lotus, Tenbet, Spin, Punjab Exchange, for the purpose of earning huge amounts of money through betting. The investigation of the case also lead to the arrest of accused Rajesh Garg alias Raju Kalia and 2 laptops, 5 mobile phones were recovered from his possession and 2 mobile phones were recovered from Pankaj Kumar Arora. The further interrogation of these two resulted in the arrest of Ravinder Singh Dandiwal. It was also revealed that he organized such fraudulent tournaments for many years in Mohali, Amritsar and Bhopal after forming a club named Cricket Club of India (CCI) in 2009. He also had links with various other big fishes in the world of betting. Further investigations in the case are on.

A post shared by SAS NAGAR POLICE (@sasnagarpolice) on Jul 7, 2020 at 11:12pm PDT