ED seizes assets worth Rs 417 crore in Mahadev online betting case: What is the racket? Who are the kingpins?

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has revealed that one of the two kingpins of the Mahadev online betting case, Sourabh Chandrakar, spent Rs 200 crore on his lavish wedding in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) earlier this year. The central agency is investigating money laundering worth crores in connection with the operations of the Mahadev online gambling app, whose one of the promoters is Chandrakar. The ED also seized cash and properties worth Rs 417 crore in the case, the agency said today (15 September). “The ED has recently conducted widespread searches against the money laundering networks linked with Mahadev APP in cities like Kolkata, Bhopal, Mumbai etc. and retrieved large amount of incriminating evidences and has frozen/seized proceeds of crime worth Rs 417 crore,” PTI quoted the agency as saying. Four people were arrested in the case last month. Who are the kingpins and what is the case about? Let’s find out. Meet the kingpins According to ED, Chandrakar, 28, and Ravi Uppal, 43, are the main promoters of Mahadev Online Book – an online betting platform. Hailing from Chhattisgarh’s Bhilai, the duo is based in Dubai from where they allegedly run operations of the platform. The family members of Chandrakar, who tied the knot in February this year, had arrived in private jets to the UAE from Nagpur for the ceremony, reported Indian Express. Several celebrities attended the wedding, including Tiger Shroff, Sunny Leone, Atif Aslam and Vishal Dadlani, among others, ED sources told India Today. As per the TV channel’s report, singers including Neha Kakkar also performed at the event. “Sourabh Chandrakar & Ravi Uppal have created an empire for themselves in the UAE. The sudden & illegal riches are being openly flaunted by them. In February 2023, Sourabh Chandrakar got married at RAK (Ras Al-Khaimah), UAE, and for this marriage ceremony, the promoters of Mahadev APP spent around Rs 200 crore in cash. Private jets were hired to ferry family members from Nagpur to UAE. Celebrities were hired to perform in the marriage. Wedding planners, dancers, decorators etc were hired from Mumbai and hawala channels were used to make payments in cash,” Indian Express cited the ED’s press note as saying. Uppal is an engineering graduate, while Chandrakar’s educational qualifications are not known, according to Indian Express. They have been staying in Dubai for about two years. The central probe agency believes the main promoters have accumulated Rs 5,000 crores through the Mahadev online gambling app, the newspaper reported. How does the app operate? Mahadev Online Book provides a digital platform for illegal betting on live games such as poker, other card games, chance games, cricket, badminton, tennis, football and so on, as per ThePrint. Besides virtual cricket, users can also play card games like Teen Patti, poker and ‘Dragon Tiger’. ED sources told digital news outlet that the platform also allows visitors to bet on different elections in India. According to the ED, Mahadev Online Book has several websites and runs many closed groups on instant messaging apps through people called “panel owners”. These individuals then advertise the contact number of Mahadev Book over websites, luring people to play games to earn profits, Indian Express reported. Once participants click on the ad, they are asked to contact specific WhatsApp numbers. “Once a user contacts this number, he will be provided two separate numbers. One is for depositing money and collecting points in user IDs used to make bets. The second is for contacting the website to encash accumulated points in designated IDs,” an ED source told ThePrint. These IDs are created on different platforms such as laser247.com, laserbook247.com, betbhai.com, betbook247.com, tigerexch247.com, and cricketbet9.com “depending on the need and preference of the bettors”. [caption id=“attachment_13129202” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The games provided by Mahadev Online Book were “rigged” so players lost money later on. Pixabay (Representational Image)[/caption] As per the initial probe by the ED, collecting money, creating User IDs, distributing the ID credentials and distributing any money earned is done by the so-called panel owners. Players have to deposit money in “benami accounts shared online” after which they are allotted panels by the ‘head office’ in Dubai. These benami accounts are either created “fraudulently or are loaned for commission”, as per the Indian Express report. The ED source further told ThePrint that all games are “rigged in a manner such that overall, the panel owners will not lose money and despite initial profits, ultimately, the participants are likely to lose money”. The app started operations in 2017, witnessing a high increase in the number of users in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Indian Express reported citing police sources. Who is involved? As per the ED, Chandrakar and Upal run the ‘head office’ from Dubai and keep nearly 80 per cent of the profit of the operations. The betting app is run by “various panels or branches” sold by these main promoters like a small franchise, an ED source told ThePrint. The ED, which started its investigation earlier this year, arrested four people in connection with the case in late August. These include businessmen Sunil Dammani and Anil Dammani, assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Chandra Bhushan Verma of the Chhattisgarh Police, and Satish Chandrakar. The ED sources alleged that ASI Verma played a big role in protecting the main accused in the case, as per Indian Express. As per ThePrint report, the ED claimed that the police officer received Rs 65 crore in cash from the promoters of the gambling app. ASI Verma allegedly admitted to having “kept his cut” and disbursing the rest as bribes to senior police officers and politicians. “He, along with Satish Chandrakar, was receiving hefty monthly money via hawala from Dubai-based promoters of Mahadev Online Book and was distributing the same to senior police officers and leaders politically connected to Chief Minister’s Office,” an ED officer was quoted as saying by ThePrint. The agency alleged that ASI Verma connected the main promoters in Dubai to top officials in the Chhattisgarh government through Vinod Verma, a political adviser to chief minister Bhupesh Baghel. However, the political adviser has denied links to ASI Verma. He dubbed the ED raids at his home in August a “dacoity” and the agency’s allegations as “fiction based on a defamatory and baseless news article”, as per the Indian Express report. The Dammani brothers, who own a jewellery shop and a petrol pump, allegedly worked as hawala operators and facilitated the movement of funds generated from the illegal business. They were in contact with the main accused Uppal via phone, the report added. Before the ED’s investigation, the Chhattisgarh Police had launched a probe into the case in 2021. As many as 75 FIRs were registered in the case and 429 accused have been arrested across India so far. The police said more than 3,000 bank accounts were used to carry out the illegal operations. With inputs from agencies