Mahadev app owner Saurabh Chandrakar arrested in Dubai; ED may file new chargesheet: Report
This development comes weeks after local authorities in Dubai arrested Ravi Uppal, another betting and gaming app promoter, under a Red Notice (RN) issued by Interpol at the request of the Executive Directorate.
Chandrakar’s location in Dubai was reported to the federal agency and he was placed under “house arrest,” the sources said.
Indian agencies, through diplomatic channels, are working to secure extradition or extradition of the two who are playing a vital role in money laundering and police investigations into the alleged illegal activities of ‘Mahadev Book Online’ app which also has political links in Chhattisgarh and elsewhere. The sources said.
The ED is also expected to file a fresh (supplementary) chargesheet in the case against two people arrested in November from Chhattisgarh – alleged money carrier Asim Das and police constable Fahim Yadav.
The agency, in its first chargesheet filed before a special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Raipur, had named Chandrakar and Uppal along with others.
In this charge sheet, Dilip Chandrakar, Saurabh Chandrakar’s uncle, has quoted a statement that before Saurabh went to Dubai in 2019, he was running a juice shop called ‘Juice Factory’ with his brother in Bhilai town in Chhattisgarh.
The CEO claimed that Saurabh Chandrakar got married in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE in February 2023, and around Rs 200 crore “cash” was spent on the event in which private jets were chartered to fly his relatives from India to UAE and money was paid to celebrity leads.
Uppal (43 years old) was arrested last week in Dubai.
The two businessmen are being investigated by the ED in a money laundering case linked to alleged illegal betting through online applications, apart from investigations being conducted by the Crime Branch of Chhattisgarh and Mumbai Police.
Interpol issued a Red Notice against the two at the request of the Executive Director who was based on a non-bailable court warrant.
The expected proceeds of crime in this case are around Rs 6,000 crore, according to the executive directorate.
The agency had claimed in November, ahead of the first phase of the Chhattisgarh assembly elections, that a forensic analysis and statement made by “cash courier” Asim Das led to “astonishing allegations” that Mahadev’s betting app promoters had paid around Rs 508 crore to the Chhattisgarh chief minister. Former and senior Congress leader
Bhupesh Baghel, adding that these allegations were “the subject of investigation.”
Das later submitted before the special court in Raipur that he was accused as part of a conspiracy and that he had never handed over money to politicians.
Officials said the investigation by the ED showed that the Mahadev Online Book app was run from a central head office in the UAE. It said it operates by franchising “panels/branches” to its well-known partners with a profit rate of between 70 and 30 percent.
She said that large-scale transfer operations are carried out to withdraw betting proceeds to external accounts.
The CEO said that significant cash is also being spent in India to advertise betting sites to attract new users and franchise seekers (Board).
The company’s promoters allegedly hail from Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, and Mahadev’s online book betting app is an umbrella syndicate that arranges online platforms to enable illegal betting sites.
