The Crime Branch of Mumbai police also arrested a hawala operator and a conduit of a betting syndicate as it widened its probe into the racket, taking the number of those arrested by it in connection with the spot-fixing case to nine since the May 14 arrest of Ramesh Vyas, the alleged kingpin.
Virendra Darasingh Randhawa alias Vindoo was picked up from his suburban Juhu residence and arrested this morning for his alleged links with the bookies, who were already arrested by the crime branch. Vindoo was also into betting, Joint Commissioner (Crime) Himanshu Roy told reporters.
A Mumbai-based hawala operator Alpeshkumar Patel, who ensured inflow and outflow of money from Pakistan to India via Dubai for the purpose of betting, was apprehended from his office in south Mumbai's Kalbadevi area.
Rs 1.28 cash and two mobile phones were recovered from him, Roy said. Patel was actively involved in the hawala transactions for which he used to charge anything between 0.25 and 0.5 per cent for each transaction.
Crime Branch sources claimed that 49-year-old Vindoo, winner of reality television show Bigg Boss season 3, was in touch with some bookies arrested in the scandal and was himself into betting. He was on many occasions spotted watching IPL matches and attending post-match parties.
His arrest is the first from Bollywood in connection with the latest scandal to hit Indian cricket.