A Chinese national and four others, working for a China based gambling firm, arrested

HYDERABAD: After launching a probe into the allegations of money laundering against different Chinese nationals and their associates based in India by the Income Tax department, Hyderabad police on Thursday arrested four persons, which included a Chinese national from Delhi as they were organizing online gambling. The alleged gambling was organised by different companies under the umbrella of a China-based firm called Beijing T Power Company.
Hyderabad police said that they arrested Yah Hao, a Chinese national, head of Operations for South East Asia of this online gaming business, and their three Directors - Dheeraj Sarkar, Ankit Kapoor, Neeraj Tuli.
These four accused were arrested based on a complaint filed by two persons who lost Rs 1.64 lakhs and Rs 97,000 after placing bets while playing the online games.
'The domain name servers of the gaming websites are based out of China and the data hosting services are cloud-based in the US but operated from China. The entire technical operation is run by China based directors/partners of these companies. The payments were being routed through India based payment service providers/gateways,’’ Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar said in a press conference.
Under the umbrella of a firm called as Beijing T Power Company based out of China, several companies under different names- Growing Infortech Pvt Ltd, Sily Consulting Services Pvt Ltd, Pan Yun Technology Services, Linkyun Technology Pvt Ltd, Dokypay Technology Pvt Ltd, SpotPay Technology India Pvt Ltd, Daisylink Financial Pvt Ltd, Huahuo Financial Pvt Ltd - are organizing the betting through various online gaming.
Officials said that to place bets by playing these online games, the organisers have made sure the membership will be only through a reference.
"Online gaming was being organized by luring prospective gamers through telegram groups. Entry is only through reference and the members who introduce a certain number of new members are paid a commission. On these groups the admins will usually indicate the websites on which the registered members can play games and place their bets. In this particular format it was found that players would place bets on games like Colour Prediction and others,’’ Hyderabad police said.
The total value of inward transactions done in two accounts which have been traced so far by the police is nearly Rs 1,100 crores and the majority of these transactions were done in the year 2020. Officials could freeze only Rs 30 crore, which is now parked in different bank accounts.