3 days ago
4 influencers arrested for promoting illegal gambling websites on Instagram
Rajkot: Devbhumi Dwarka police have arrested four social media influencers under the Gujarat Prevention of Gambling Act, for allegedly promoting illegal online gambling sites.
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Bharat Lagariya (23), Sumat Chavda (22), Deepak Santhalpara (22) and Kesur Bhatiya (24) are all social media influencers and residents of villages in Kalyanpur taluka.
Cybercrime police station booked them last month after learning of their activities. Police summoned them, recorded their statements and searched their phones for evidence before making the arrests.
According to police, these individuals were promoting illegal online gambling platforms and misleading people.
There is also a likelihood that those who went on to use these platforms would become victims of cyberfraud.
The four told police that the promoters of the online gambling platforms approached them on Instagram and paid them Rs 8,000 to 12,000 per reel. The agents communicated with them on WhatsApp and messages and transferred money into their bank accounts.
These four had to make promotional videos for the gambling platforms, post them on Instagram and share the Instagram links with the agents.
They were required to keep the videos on their Instagram accounts for a week, delete them and then post new ones.
All these games were based on luck with no skill involved in playing them. Police found several videos promoting online gambling platforms on the mobiles of the accused. The accused could not produce any contracts with the owners of these platforms, which had names such as 'Rajagames', 'RummyMarz' and '12 Days'.
