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Bookies Offered Odds On India's Riots7 March 2002JAIPUR, India- Police have arrested 81 bookies offering bets on the likelihood of religious riots breaking out in a state bordering Gujarat, where hundreds of people were killed in Hindu-Muslim violence. Two of the bookies, Genda Lal and Satyanarain, were offering odds of 1-to-4 to 1-to-6 in favor of riots taking place in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan state, Superintendent of Police Anand Shrivastav said Thursday. Shrivastav said the bookies had created panic in Jaipur by spreading rumors of impending riots to drum up their business. They offered odds on a curfew being clamped in the old part of Jaipur as well as on estimated casualties, he said. The bookies were arrested Wednesday and Thursday, Shrivastav said. Gambling is illegal in India, though underground bookies thrive. They face up to a year in jail if convicted. At least 667 people were killed in Gujarat state since Feb. 27, when a Muslim mob set fire to a train carrying Hindu activists, triggering a Hindu backlash. |