The CBI on Wednesday conducted searches at 60 locations, including the residence of former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, in connection with the alleged `6,000 Crore Mahadev betting app scam, officials said.

The agency teams cracked on at Baghel’s residences in Raipur and Bhilai, as well as the houses of a senior police officer and a close associate of the former CM, they said. The searches also covered the premises of Congress MLA Devendra Yadav in Bhilai town of Durg district and of IPS officers Anand Chhabra, Abhishek Pallava and Arif Sheikh, among others, sources said. Congress said the CBI’s searches at Baghel’s residences were politically motivated, and asserted it will not be intimidated by such actions.

In a social media post from Baghel’s office, the former chief minister’s office said, “Now CBI has arrived. Former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is scheduled to go to Delhi today for the meeting of the ‘Drafting Committee’ constituted for the AICC meeting to be held in Ahmedabad (Gujarat) on 8 and 9 April. Before that, the CBI has reached Raipur and Bhilai Niwas.”

The CBI has taken over the investigation from the Economic Offences Wing of the Chhattisgarh Police, which had earlier named Congress leader Baghel, promoters of the app, Ravi Uppal, Saurabh Chandrakar, Shubham Soni, and Anil Kumar Agrawal, and 14 others in its FIR.  Baghel had termed the EOW FIR “politically motivated.” The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is also probing the case, has alleged that its probe revealed the involvement of several top politicians and bureaucrats from Chhattisgarh. The app was an umbrella syndicate arranging online platforms for illegal betting websites to enrol new users, create user IDs and launder money through a layered web of ‘benami’ bank accounts, it claimed.  The projected proceeds of crime are about Rs 6,000 crore, the ED earlier said.

“In the investigation of Mahadev Book online betting scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today is conducting searches at 60 locations across Chhattisgarh, Bhopal, Kolkata, and Delhi including premises linked to politicians, senior bureaucrats, police officers, key functionaries of Mahadev Book, and other private individuals suspected of involvement in the case,” a CBI Spokesperson said in a statement.

The agency said that the case pertains to the illegal operations of Mahadev Book, an online betting platform promoted by Ravi Uppal and Saurabh Chandrakar, both of whom are currently based in Dubai. “Investigations have revealed that the promoters allegedly paid substantial amounts as ‘protection money’ to public servants to ensure the smooth and uninterrupted functioning of their illegal betting network,” the statement said.

The app was an umbrella syndicate arranging online platforms for illegal betting websites to enrol new users, create user IDs and launder money through a layered web of ‘benami’ bank accounts, it claimed. The projected proceeds of crime are about Rs 6,000 crore, the ED earlier said.