Dwarka police have arrested four local social media influencers under Gujarat Prevention of Gambling Act for promoting illegal online gambling platforms. The arrested are Bharat Lagariya (23), Sumat Chavda (22), Deepak Santhalpara (22) and Kesur Bhatiya (24) from different villages of Kalyanpur taluka. All four are active on Instagram and other digital platforms.
Cybercrime unit of the district had been monitoring their activities and booked them last month. When summoned, the suspects got their phones checked and statements recorded. Police said these influencers were promoting gambling platforms which are operating outside legal boundaries and might be deceiving their followers. Officials warned that users who are attracted to such platforms might become victims of cybercrime and fraud.
During interrogation, the accused said they were approached through Instagram by representatives of these gambling services who offered them ₹8,000 to ₹12,000 per promotional reel. All transactions and communication happened over WhatsApp and text messages and the money was credited directly to their bank accounts. Their job was to create promotional content, upload it on their Instagram profiles and share the post links with the agents. Each reel would stay live for about a week and then would be removed and new content would be uploaded.
Police said the games on these sites were purely based on chance and had no skill component. They found many promotional videos on the influencers’ mobile phones. When asked, the accused couldn’t produce any formal agreements or documents related to the companies behind the platforms which were operating under names like ‘Rajagames’, ‘RummyMarz’ and ‘12 Days’.
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