Fake IPL: How Gujarat village duped Russian Punters with elaborate scam

3 weeks after the 'real IPL' concluded, a group in a remote village in Gujarat almost pulled off a fake Indian Premier League.

It only took 21 farm labourers as players, a Harsha Bhogle mimic, some videographers, a Telegram channel, some crowd-noise sound effects, and umpires who knew how to signal boundaries to dupe Russian punters, sitting thousand of miles away in the cities of Tver, Voronezh and Moscow!

Shoeb Davda, returned to his village Molipur in the Mehsana district after working for 8 months in a Russian pub famous for taking bets. Davda said he met a man Asif Mohammad in Russia, who masterminded the plan that duped punters with their scheme.

Davda first hired farmland, installed floodlights there, then convinced 21 farm labourers by offering them double their amount of daily wage, 400 rs per match. He then hired camerapersons, and videographers, made a telegram channel for betting, and bought IPL team jerseys.

To make it look authentic, they hired a Meerut-based commentator Saqib, who could mimic Harsha Bhogle. Three persons were employed to play umpires.5 HD cameras would broadcast the game on a YouTube channel labelled IPL.

Also Read Cristiano Ronaldo 'not for sale', claims Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag

Fake Harsha Bhogle's commentating, umpires with fake walkie-talkies signalling 6s, 4s, and outs, and usage of fake crowd noises persuaded the Russian punters to bet on the game. They would bet their roubles via Telegram, and Davda would instantly send instructions to the players and the umpires on what to do.

All was going well for the conmen, their tournament had made it to the quarter-finals stage too. However, their first installment of bets amounting to 3 lakhs landed them in trouble. Mehsana Police began their investigation and arrested 4 persons.

The cops are further investigating the hawala channel that was used to keep the con alive!