Nellore police bust international betting racket, seize₹34.65 lakh

The Nellore police on Tuesday (March 3, 2026) busted an international cricket betting racket, seized ₹34.65 lakh and freezing ₹1.64 crore across various bank accounts.

The case came to light after a complainant approached the Balaji Nagar police and alleged that he had paid ₹53 lakh to one Venu of Buchireddypalem, expecting higher returns. Following the directions of Superintendent of Police Ajitha Vejendla, the Additional Superintendent (Admin) Ch. Soujanya formed a team comprising Additional Superintendent (Nellore) Deeksha and Balaji Nagar Circle Inspector Sambasiva Rao to probe the case.

The team zeroed in on the accused, Venu, and his accomplice, Venkataramana, and found that they were involved in cricket betting through apps such as r777.us and Radhee Exchange (R777). The police seized ₹34.65 lakh, thirteen mobile phones, two knives, a laptop, and a currency counting machine.

The police have also launched a manhunt for the other accused, Kusetty Mani and Kusetty Mahesh, who remain on the run. The trail further led to the key players in the case P. Mahesh Babu and P. Hari Krishna, who had previously worked as software engineers in Bengaluru.

P. Mahesh Babu had learnt the nuances of cricket betting from his trainers in Dubai, got the app from them with an agreed profit share of 30 per cent, from which he offered half the profit (15%) to his Nellore partners.

“The two bookies operated from Dubai and Bangkok during the cricket season, used advanced technology like VOIP and VPN to conceal their identity. As super admins of the B2B and B2C models, the duo got huge profits and bought shares, lands and cars”, Ms. Ajitha Vejendla told the media.

She appealed to the youth not to fall prey to such misleading promises.