Student ends life after losing money in IPL betting

An undergraduate student in Jharkhand's Ramgarh district committed suicide on Thursday night, allegedly after losing over Rs two lakh in betting on IPL matches.

An undergraduate student in Jharkhand's Ramgarh district committed suicide on Thursday night, allegedly after losing over Rs two lakh in betting on IPL matches.

The incident occurred a night ahead of state capital Ranchi hosting the first India leg match of IPL 7 on Friday.

Police identified the deceased as Arun Kumar Bhagat, 21, a resident of Kali Chowk in Chittarpur under Rajrappa police station area of Ramgarh, around 50 km from Ranchi.

Rajrappa police have sent the body for autopsy and begun investigation.

Chhatru Bhagat, the victim's father confirmed that his son had run into heavy debts over betting.

"I recently learnt that he had lost Rs 2 lakh in betting. Unable to pay the debts, he appeared frustrated and very tense," the distraught father added.

Police said Arun hanged himself by the neck with a rope attached to a hook on the ceiling of the bathroom. However, the exact time of the suicide has not been ascertained as the body was discovered only on Friday morning by a family-member.

Though he was rushed to a hospital, he was declared brought dead.

Arun's friend Nand Kumar Bhagat said that a large number of people were active in betting in the Chittarpur area in Ramgarh. Like many big and small towns across the country, illegal betting syndicates have been active in Ramgarh since the start of this season's IPL in the United Arab Emirate (UAE) where the first round of the matches were played.

This season's first IPL match on Indian soil between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders will be held at Ranchi's JSCA International Stadium on Friday.

Sources in the administration said it had recently received several complaints about youths getting hooked to IPL betting.

Besides, a large number of people are also said to have betted over the recently-held parliamentary polls in Ramgarh, which under Hazaribagh Lok Sabha constituency.

Ramgarh police are already faced with the problem of rising suicides in the city by people under debt of money lenders.

Over the last one week, two youths committed suicide while two others made abortive attempts to end their lives under duress from money-lenders. However, these incidents were not related to betting.

A senior police officer not authorised to speak to media said that they were gathering information about the gangs which are running the betting syndicates.

"We will launch a crackdown on them soon," he said.