Deepak ‘Deesa’, a key accused behind the series of events connecting the Taral Bhatt extortion scandal, has been reportedly detained in Dubai, having fled to the Arab country after he was booked for a cricket betting scandal in Madhavpur, Ahmedabad.

Sources in the Gujarat Police said that after the Madhavpur cricket betting scandal, a red corner notice was issued against Deepak in a dabba trading (box trading - an illegal trading practice) case. However, no official notification has been issued by the Dubai authorities to the Indian government or Gujarat Police regarding this.

The dabba betting scandals were exposed in connection with the Junagadh extortion case over an investigation carried out by the state monitoring cell (SMC).

The financial transactions of the dabba trading nexus were being operated from a small office in Ahmedabad’s Vejalpur, whose server was in Dubai, where Deepak and his accomplices were also suspected to be.

Deepak ‘Deesa’, a key accused in Taral Bhatt’s scandalous deeds

In May 2023, the Ahmedabad Prevention of Crime Branch (PCB) raided an office in the city’s Madhavpur area and busted a cricket betting racket.

During the investigation of this case, allegations were levelled against the then PCB police inspector (PI), Taral Bhatt, who was consequently transferred to Junagadh district as Manavadar Circle PI.

Following this, the police extortion scandal in Junagadh, involving assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Dipak Jani and special operations group (SOG) police inspector (PI) AM Gohil, came to light.

The investigation of the betting case in Madhavpur was subsequently handed over to the SMC. During their investigation, it was also revealed that cricket betting was also linked to the dabba trading racket.

A raid was conducted at the Vejalpur office, which landed them on 10,000 bank accounts operated from overseas.

Interrogations of the accused revealed that transactions worth crores were made in this dabba trading racket, which creates a direct link from the Dubai-based server to Ahmedabad.

480 bank accounts were found to have been used for these transactions, and an amount to the tune of ₹10 cr was frozen in police action.

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