T20 World Cup illegal streaming & betting

The Ahmedabad cybercrime cell has uncovered a massive illegal streaming and betting racket involving the T20 World Cup matches played in the US and West Indies. Two perpetrators have been nabbed in this case, whose ties extend to Canada and Pakistan.

The racket was unearthed following a complaint filed by Maharashtra resident Nilesh Sawant, who alleged that a betting website named ‘Magic Win’, among other similar sites, was illegally streaming cricket and other sports matches, officially broadcasted on Star India Pvt Ltd’s sports channel.

The cybercrime team conducted a technical investigation and tracked the illicit server. Following this, the cops apprehended one Divyanshu Patel from Mehsana’s Unjha.

On questioning him, Divyanshu revealed that he had pursued an IT engineering course in Mehsana and learned web development. This allowed him to create and manage illegal streaming operations.

Extensive modus operandi of the perpetrators

Divyanshu is responsible for developing and managing the illegal streaming operation. He provided his friend Shubham Patel, residing in Canada, with the necessary software and expertise to conduct live streaming on various websites.

In 2020, upon Shubham’s suggestion, Divyanshu purchased two domains that were used to upload illegally streamed videos from other websites onto their server.

During the raid at Divyanshu’s residence, the police seized three CPUs, a monitor, a router, foreign bank debit cards, and mobile phones.

Meanwhile, Shubham procured illegal streaming links and codes from a Pakistani named Azhar Amin and offered him hefty payments.

Police sources stated that Azhar and Shubham had met in Dubai.

Azhar, with his expertise in satellite TV and technical connections, provided live streaming of various matches. Shubham had connections with several betting clients in Dubai and was responsible for negotiating deals.

Divyanshu uploaded the content on the server based on the link codes provided by Azhar.

More heads identified in illegal streaming-betting scam

As per the cybercrime Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Hardik Makadia, it was also revealed that another person named Harsh Patel, also from Unjha, was involved in the financial transactions of this case. Harsh maintained contact with Azhar via WhatsApp and had opened bogus bank accounts to facilitate the illegal money transfers.

However, Harsh managed to evade police arrest and is suspected to have fled to Dubai, sources said.

The police also discovered details of funds deposited into illegal accounts, which were provided by an IndusInd Bank employee Akashgiri Goswami.

The cybercrime team has initiated a search of the remaining accused and is actively pursuing Azhar, who remains at large in Pakistan.

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