Bookies used code names, called Sreesanth 'Rotru' and Dhoni 'Helicopter'

S Sreesanth

The recent reports coming out from the police investigations suggested that the bookies and their underworld contacts used code names to refer to each other as well as the players to avoid the risk of being detected by the security agencies. They used the code names like ‘Rotru’ for Sreesanth, ‘Helicopter’ for Dhoni and ‘Raavan’ for Gayle.

Mumbai police was also successful in decoding the code names of Vindoo Dara Singh and Gurunath Meiyappan, who were called ‘Jack’ and ‘Guru’ respectively in the betting circles. Police stated that they found these code names from the diaries and iPads recovered from the bookies. Police also confirmed these code names from some of the taped conversations between the bookies.

“In the tapes, bookies could be heard using the code names. For instance, Guruji (Meiyappan) was heard speaking to Jack (Vindu): “lagaya Rs 5, khaya Rs 3″ (Guru is betting Rs 5); Shanu (another bookie) said to Jack: “2 gaya” (Shanu lost Rs 2); “Ramesh bhai 1 aaya” (Rameshbhai gets Rs 1); “PD zero balance” (bookie Pravin Behra has lost and there is no balance in his account),” said an officer.

Some of the other conversations said, “PJ bhai 1 aaya chidiya” (Pawan Jaipur, one new punter has come), “SJ bhai, Dilli-wale baba–zero balance” ( Sanjay Jaipur, Delhi-based bookie Tinku has zero balance); Bunny to Jack: “new entry – 0.50 lagaya, 0.75 diya” ; and “Victor boss – 0.25 aaya” (Chennai based hotelier Vikram Aggarwal has bet 25 paise).

A police officer said, “They do use codes to evade or to mislead security agencies, in case their mobiles are under surveillance.”

It was also revealed that Malinga and Yuvraj were given the codenames of ‘Makki’ and ‘Model’ respectively by the bookies. Other codenames include Sehwag-Chashma, Bhajji-Topi, Raina-Sher, Kohli-Shining, Ashwin-Firki, Chandila-Mowgli, Chavan-Kawa, Gurunath Meiyappan-Guruji.