The arrest of two social media influencers for allegedly promoting gambling activities on their Instagram handles has prompted a crackdown. This action targets similar online vloggers. The city’s Cybercrime branch arrested seven individuals for luring people to gamble. The police arrested Nilesh Chavda, Bhavesh Rathod, Laxman Janjvadiya, Sagar Chhaya, Vanrajsinh Zala, Ilesh Derwadiya, and Vijay Majethiya. This follows the arrest of Deep Goswami and Dharmik Vaghani recently, under the relevant sections of the Gujarat Gambling Act.
The investigation revealed that these influencers used their reach to promote restricted gambling platforms. They earned commissions ranging from a few thousand rupees to over a million. Together, they had influence over more than 28 lakh followers.
DCP (Crime) Dr. Parthrajsinh Gohil said they sought detailed information from banks to trace the flow of money. They included data on the accounts from which funds credited to the influencers’ accounts and the accounts used by individuals participating in online gambling to transfer money. Once they receive this data, they will initiate proceedings to freeze the amounts earned by the influencers and other involved individuals.
These influencers reportedly earned up to Rs 7,000 per reel they made to promote online gambling platforms. Furthermore, they earned substantial commissions based on the number of users who created gambling IDs through the Instagram profile of the influencers and then participated in betting games.
According to officials, some influencers earned over Rs 700,000 in commission in the past six months alone. Investigators found many influencers promoted websites like www.rajagames.world, which has over 95,000 followers. They allegedly earned a commission of around Rs 6 lakh. Similarly, 23-year-old Deep Goswami, connected to www.rajagames.in, gathered 3.22 lakh followers. He reportedly made Rs 7 lakh through similar promotions.
With a following of 5.16 lakh, Majethiya, 32, allegedly made Rs 1.35 lakh by the promotion of all sports games, as well as casino content. Chavda, 29, had one of the highest follower counts at 8.95 lakh and got an approximately Rs 11 lakh commission. Earning roughly Rs 30,000 monthly, Rathod, 25, was connected to sky365.com and had 8.6 lakh followers.
