Bhiwandi police bust online betting and codeine smuggling rackets, arrest 15

Police in Bhiwandi city in Thane district have busted two major rackets at the same time. One was an online gaming betting racket and the other the illegal smuggling of codeine phosphate. According to police, 10 people involved in the betting and 5 involved in smuggling the banned codeine, 15 in all, have been arrested. The action has exposed a gang spread across Mumbai, Gujarat and Rajasthan as well as Bhiwandi.

The first case began with a complaint registered at Bhoiwada police station. Naved Javed Shaikh (28), a resident of Alfa Complex in Bhiwandi, filed it on October 17, 2026. According to the complaint, a man named Bhagwandas lured seven people with the promise of starting a company and "work from home", and obtained their bank accounts, passbooks, ATM cards and SIM cards.

The investigation found that large financial transactions for online gaming betting were being carried out through these accounts on websites named Khiladi000003 and anna555. On the basis of technical investigation, police raided Room No. 04 in the Royal Palm complex in Aarey Colony, Goregaon, Mumbai.

Ten people running the racket were arrested from the premises. They are Aniket Yadav, Ramesh Mandal, Khilesh Yadav, Kundan Yadav, Rajaram Raut, Atish Yadav, Ashok Yadav, Dilip Yadav, Jitendra Yadav and Sandu Yadav. Police seized 31 mobile phones, 46 ATM cards, 40 SIM cards and 4 laptops from them. All the accused have been remanded in police custody until October 26, 2026.

The second action targeted an illegal stock of codeine phosphate. Police naik Swapnil Suryavanshi received a tip-off. Acting on it, police laid a trap on September 17, 2026 in the lane behind Scholar School in Somwar Bazaar and detained Akbar Adam Shah. According to police, he had neither a doctor's prescription nor a valid bill of purchase or sale, and 119 bottles of codeine phosphate were seized from him.

In this case, on the basis of bank account transactions and technical evidence, Bhoiwada police sent special teams to Bhiwandi, Kalyan and Palghar as well as to Gujarat and Rajasthan. Five people have been arrested. They are Akbar Adam Shah of Bhiwandi, Zafar Jabbar Rais of Kalyan, Wasim Shabib Shaikh of Palghar, Arafat Alauddin Shaikh of Kalyan, and Ajitkumar Vikram Singh of Rajasthan, who is the proprietor of "Balaji Traders".

The double operation was carried out under the guidance of Police Commissioner Ashutosh Dumbre, Joint Police Commissioner Dnyaneshwar Chavan, Additional Police Commissioner Ashok Dhudhe, Deputy Commissioner of Police Pawan Bansode and Assistant Commissioner of Police Milind Shinde. Senior Police Inspector Vikram Mohite, Assistant Police Inspector Deepak Jadhav and their team played a key role. The two rackets surfacing in Bhiwandi at the same time have caused a stir, and police are investigating further in greater depth.