Feature
Man posts his live-stream suicide video on Facebook
Chandigarh: A 32-year-old man hanged himself from a ceiling fan in Haryana’s Sonepat district and live-streamed the suicide on his Facebook page, police said today.
Sonepat SP Ashwin Shenvi said Deepak scribbled the reason behind him taking the extreme step on the wall of his room before ending his life.
The man wrote that he was “facing threat to his life from a married woman in his neighbourhood and her alleged lover after he told her husband about their illicit relationship”.
Shenvi said Deepak live-streamed the suicide on his Facebook page.
“The woman and her paramour are employed with the Delhi Police, while her husband is part of the Haryana Police.
“Deepak wrote on the wall that the woman, an ASI, had an affair with an Inspector and after he came to know about it, he narrated everything to her husband,” the SP said.
The man wrote that the woman and her alleged lover had threatened to kill him.
Sonepat City SHO Ajay Malik said Deepak’s family has filed a complaint based on which an FIR has been registered against the woman and her alleged lover on charges of abetting the suicide.
“A team of Sonepat Police is already in Delhi. The mobile phones of the accused are switched off and the duo are not at their place,” he said.
Meanwhile, a relative of the deceased alleged that the accused were harassing Deepak for the past six months.
He claimed that Deepak also wrote a 60-page diary describing what exactly happened, but he could not muster enough courage to approach police.
“Yesterday, he called his sister, asking her to take care of their father. He then switched off his mobile phone. And then in the evening, he live-streamed the video on Facebook.
“At the time of the incident, he was alone in his home as his parents had gone to Mathura and he had sent his wife and son to a relative’s house,” the relative said.
Entertainment
Meghalaya Reserves Legalized Gambling and Sports Betting for Tourists
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.