Gambling kingpin paid monthly rent of 3 lakh for DLF II house

GURGAON: A day after busting an illegal 'casino' in an upscale locality, Gurgaon Police on Monday said they had detained for questioning the owner of the house that was used by the kingpin, Naresh Malhotra, an Amritsar resident, to run the gambling racket.
ACP (crime) Rajesh Kumar said Manoj Yadav was questioned by a team of cops. "During interrogation, it has been revealed that Malhotra had taken on a monthly rent of Rs 3 lakh a month Yadav's house in block L of DLF Phase-2 on the pretext of running a guest house," he told TOI.
Kumar added, "Malhotra had even paid Rs 6 lakh to Yadav as two months advance rent barely six weeks ago. Yadav said that he was unaware of the gambling racket."
Meanwhile, cops said that there could be more such gambling rackets operating in the city. "We are currently working with our informers and expect to find more such cases," Kumar said.
Gurgaon Police commissioner Navdeep Virk also said that he has asked his officials to keep a watch on such possible gambling rackets being run in the garb of commercial establishments.
"We are questioning Naresh Malhotra as we expect him to be linked to influential people under whose patronage he has been thriving. We also expect to unearth more such centers in the city," he said.
The police had on Sunday confiscated Rs 20 lakh from the gambling tables and arrested 43 people, including five women from Kathmandu trained in operating casinos, who the organizer had hired. All 43 were granted bail by a magistrate's court on Sunday.
The raid was carried out by the cops around 3am after the police received a tipoff. The police team was led by Ramesh Pal, ACP DLF, Dhaarna Yadav, ACP Sadar Gurgaon, and Devender Singh, ACP Crime-II Gurgaon. The police had said gambling was on in full swing when the cops entered the premises.
After the raids, ACP (DLF) Ramesh Pal said Malhotra had been in the gambling business for many years and was trying to replicate Goa's casino culture in Gurgaon. Furthermore, to make his gambling joint more attractive, Malhotra had hired five women from Nepal - all experts at playing cards - and 10 bouncers to keep the gambling ring under cover.