NEW DELHI, March 7: Indian police have arrested 70 bookmakers who fuelled rumours about riots to encourage bets on the chances of sectarian violence in Gujarat state spreading to other areas, the Hindustan Times reported on Thursday.

The bookies living in Rajasthan, adjacent to Gujarat, were offering odds of between 4-1 and 6-1 on the unrest crossing the state border.

In order to drum up business, they used their mobile phones to spread baseless rumours of clashes, but were caught when the police were tipped off and their calls traced back, the Times said.

“They deliberately spread the rumours to keep the possibility of riots alive, without which they would not have been in business,” said a police official in Rajasthan’s capital, Jaipur.

The police have recovered a large number of betting slips and two dozen mobile phones.—AFP