Mumbai: Crime branch unit 4 police arrested six people for allegedly operating an illegal online lottery in Shivaji Nagar on Saturday and booked them under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Information Technology (IT) Act and Maharashtra Prevention of Gambling Act.

According to sources, police received a tip-off that few men were operating an illegal gambling racket despite having no legal licence for selling lotteries. Police immediately roped in a technology expert, Pushkar Zantye, 31 who briefed the police regarding the matter.

Primary probe revealed that a lottery racket was being operated under the garb of a ‘Revolution Beauty Parlour’. Accordingly, police raided the premises at Ahilyabai Holkar Marg and two other places after a decoy customer was sent to verify the tip-off. Police then arrested six men during the raids.

The arrested accused have been identified as Usman Shaikh, Firoj Khan, Abdul Aziz Yusuf Khatri, Irfan Qureshi, Kunal Panchmukh and Haroon Sayyad. They were produced in a local magistrate court and remanded in police custody till December 26.

During the raids, police seized hard disks, router, barcode scanner, printer, lottery sheets apart from cash worth Rs 18,380. Police booked the accused under relevant sections of the IPC, IT Act and Maharashtra Prevention of Gambling Act.