Acting on a tip-off from nearby residents, Police seized 800 SIM cards and several Paytm barcodes from the illegal venue in Karimpur, Nadia.
The trio was charged with deception and forgery, but have since been interrogated by the cyber crime wing of Krishnagar district police on their links to online gambling associates operating from China.
“The trio also said they had cheated innocent people of their credit or debit card details and card verification values by posing as bank officials,” a police official said.
A detective said that it was not immediately clear who the victims were, “But since we noticed several cases that registered for online illegal gambling with signs pointing to Chinese links across the country in the recent past, we took the matter seriously.”
A cyber crime police officer noted that illegal online gambling was generally carried out through groups such as WhatsApp or Telegram, saying: “The group admins refer to websites, on which group members can play games and place bets.
“To skip the surveillance of Indian authorities, domains of these sites are generally located in China and payments are routed through India-based gateways like Paytm. The benefit remittances are usually transferred to several linked bank accounts to avoid scanners of income tax.”
