CANACONA
Canacona police nabbed 39 persons from neighbouring Karnataka and one person from Canacona, and seized cash and other items valued at Rs 16.35 lakh in a major raid on gambling activities in Loliem-Polem in the early hours of Tuesday.
Among the 40 who were arrested later in the day were seven gambling organisers, comprising one from Shelli in Loliem-Polem village, and six others from Kumta, Hatkeri, Shimoga and Ankola in Karnataka. Acting on a tip-off in the early hours of Tuesday, Canacona PI Harish V Raut Dessai swung into action and formed a police team to conduct raids on various places at Dulegal-Shelli in Loliem-Polem from 3.12 am till 6.30 am.
All the arrested persons, who are between 29 and 56 years old, had come to play card gambling and are from Karwar, Ankola, Kumta, Yellapur, Honnavar, Sirsi, Mundgod and Haveri in Karnataka.
Besides seizing cash of Rs 5.2 lakh in different denominations, Canacona police also seized playing cards, a desktop computer along with accessories worth Rs 15,000, 40 mobile phones worth Rs 5 lakh and a Karnataka-registered car worth Rs 6 lakh, with a combined value of Rs 16.35 lakh.
Those who were arrested for organising the card gambling activity are Mahendra Naik (50) of Kumta, Prashant Naik (30) of Hatikeri, Anand Nayak (40) of Kumta, Purnesh Krishnappa (40) of Shimoga, Sudhakar Naik (43) of Kumta, Nagraj Naik (38) of Ankola and Rony Fernandes (29) of Shelim-Polem.
Those who were arrested for playing cards and gambling were Nagraj Naik (45) of Karwar, Raj Shimga (48) of Karwar, Panduraj Gowda (55) of Ankola, Santosh Gaonkar (46) of Kumta, Jagdish Gowda (33) of Kumta, Supray Gowda (32) of Kumta, Kaviraj Naik (32) of Yellapur, Vishal Asulkar (45) of Yellapur, Irshad Mulla (40) of Yellapur, Ganesh Bhat (34) of Sirsi, Narayan Naik (34) of Karwar, Nitin Palekar (31) of Honnavar, Parmesh Naik (45) of Honnavar, Alabakas Hirali (38) of Mundgod town, Vinay Nayak (49) of Ankola, Balraj Gouda (30) of Ankola, Ravi Shetty (56) of Ankola, Gajanand Padte (34) of Kumta, Santosh Gaonkar (45) of Ankola, Manjunath Naik (33) of Ankola, Suresh Apparnu (35) of Haveri, Gautam Kamat (32) of Yellapur, Ashok Shet (53) of Yellapur, Danraj Naik (34) of Yellapur, Naven Naik (37) of Kumta town, Raghvendra Raikar (44) of Mundgod town, Modin Mathad (30) of Karwar, Shantan Siddi (37) of Yellapur, Mantesh Harijan (30) of Yellapur, Sunil Bhotke (36) of Yellapur, Mohamad Shaikh (50) of Karwar, Raghavendra Harikantra (37) of Masjid Road, Karwar, and Prashant Talekar (52) of Karwar.
Canacona police have registered an offence under Section 4 of the PG Act against the accused persons/customers who were caught red-handed while card gambling, and Sections 3 and 4 of the PG Act and Section 112 of the BNS 2023 have been registered against the accused found organising the gambling activity.
