Mumbai’s Tardeo police posed as punters to take down an illicit betting ring at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse on Monday, leading to the arrest of seven bookies.

The police were informed that certain people were accepting illegal bets without recording and providing receipts and coupons for them. According to a police officer, the suspects utilized this method to allegedly evade taxes amounting to crores while accepting bets on a Pune horse race.

The police dispatched officers posing as punters to stall 12-A, where they saw that despite the accused taking Rs 1,500 he failed to provide a receipt or record it in any registers, which led to his arrest. According to a police officer, other booths and counters at the racetrack provide legitimate receipts and pay GST and other taxes when customers place bets.

“When we searched the stall, we saw several rough sheets. The employees working at the stall told us that it was being done purposely to evade taxes and therefore entries of lesser amounts were made by the accused. We suspect this way the accused evaded taxes running in crores,” the police officer said.

The seven arrested are identified as Sushil Atkar, Aadesh Kumar Singh, Anwar Shaikh, Sajid Ansari, Surendra Waghmare, Tausif Mansuri and Umesh Singh. An amount of Rs 6.5 lakh was seized by the police from the accused.

A case under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code for cheating and under other relevant sections of the Maharashtra Prevention of Gambling Act, 1887 has been registered against them.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed to examine the documents and determine how much tax the accused have avoided paying so far.

According to Vivek Shende, senior inspector of police at Tardeo police station, they have also written to the GST and Income Tax departments to inform them of the tax evaded.