Indian police make 90 arrests Click here for more on this story Posted: Friday June 04, 1999 09:56 AM AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) -- Ninety people have been arrested in India's western state of Gujarat on charges of illegal bookmaking during the World Cup cricket tournament, police said Friday "On prior information we carried out raids at different places in Gujarat and arrested 90 people on charges of betting in the World Cup," the state's home (interior) minister, Haren Pandya, told Reuters. He said cash worth 800,000 rupees ($18,648) was seized from the illegal bookmakers. Betting is illegal in India except on horse racing, but wagers on cricket are common and involve millions of rupees. Seventy of the people accused were caught in the main city of Ahmedabad, the city's police chief P.C. Panday said. "We tapped telephonic conversations between the bookies in Ahmedabad before raiding their premises," Panday told Reuters. He said police seized documents containing details of betting. Police arrested eight people near Calcutta in the eastern state of West Bengal last week on charges linked to betting on cricket. They seized mobile telephones, laptop computers, televisions and cash alleged to have been used in the operation. Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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