Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate Police today forwarded 17 persons including two women to a local court after arresting them from the Saliasahi slum under Nayapalli police limits on Saturday for gambling.
Sources said the cops caught the women and 15 others red-handed while they were playing the gambling card games.
The gambling was being undertaken by two women including a betel shop owner in the area, the sources added.
The police also seized cash of Rs 23,000 and cards from the possession of the arrested women.
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Refuting the charges, one of the arrested woman said, “I am a shop owner and had gone to the place to play card games to celebrate the Kumar Purnima. Initially, four women were playing there. After two of them left, some male people joined the card games. We neither earn a living out of the card games nor involved in gambling. We were playing the card games only for fun.”