ED arrests main accused Saurabh Chandrakar in Mahadev betting case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday, November 13, arrested Saurabh Chandrakar, the main accused in the multi-crore-rupee Mahadev online betting app cheating case and the promoter of the app, under the anti-money laundering law in Chhattisgarh’s capital, Raipur, the agency said.

Officials said Chandrakar, 31, was remanded in the ED’s custody until November 19 by the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court of Judge Amit Rathore.

A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Raipur had, on November 12, sent Chandrakar to judicial custody till November 19 after his arrest.

Chandrakar was brought to Delhi from Oman on November 1 after a court there allowed his extradition to India on October 8 in a money-laundering, corruption and cheating case being investigated by the two central agencies.

Online money gaming and betting, or “satta”, is a banned activity in India.

ED to confront Saurabh Chandrakar over Rs 200-crore wedding

“In ED custody, Saurabh Chandrakar will be confronted with the statements of his associates, digital data and documents concerning his foreign entities and evidence of commission of offence of money laundering,” the ED said in a statement.

The agency reiterated its earlier charge that Chandrakar’s wedding at Ras Al Khaimah in February 2023 cost about Rs 200 crore in cash, involving three chartered aircraft for guests flown from Nagpur.

“ED traced that money through the event company, hotels and angadia firms, and the guest list it recovered identified the management of the syndicate,” it said.

Mahadev app began operations in 2019-20

The agency said the Mahadev app, also called the Mahadev Online Book (MOB), began operations in 2019-20. Its user base grew “sharply” during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and continued to expand.

The app, which runs through thousands of panels, allegedly generated proceeds of crime worth Rs 80,000 crore since 2019.

Chandrakar principal promoter, collector, beneficiary: ED

The ED has called Chandrakar the “principal promoter, collector and beneficiary” of the Mahadev betting app and named him as accused no 1 in a chargesheet filed in October 2023. It has claimed that the Mahadev app operators, including co-promoter Ravi Uppal, had a “nexus” with top politicians and bureaucrats of Chhattisgarh.

The officials said Chandrakar worked in a juice shop run by his family’s company in Bhilai town in Chhattisgarh’s Durg district until December 2020.

In the following two years, he began running a betting business from Dubai with thousands of employees, they said.

The ED has arrested 15 people, attached assets worth Rs 1,885 crore, named 116 accused in its six chargesheets and conducted searches on 190 premises across the country in the PMLA case registered in October 2022 based on FIRs and chargesheets filed by the Chhattisgarh Police and the CBI.

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