The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday searched 33 locations across six States over the past few days in the Mahadev Online Book illegal betting app case, dismantling active betting and gambling panels and seizing digital devices, mobile phones, and documents pointing to the use of mule bank accounts and hawala channels.
The CBI teams searched locations linked to the platform’s panel operators in cities including Amritsar, Delhi, Nagaur, Dholpur, Bhopal, Raipur, Durg, Indore, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Mumbai, and Nagpur. They found and shut down several live panels at these sites. The seized evidence shows that operators collected betting money using bank accounts opened in other people’s names or accounts they had rented. They then sent the profits overseas through hawala networks.
The raids followed disclosures by Sourabh Chandrakar, one of the principal promoters of Mahadev Online Book, after his extradition from Oman. The CBI arrested Chandrakar on November 1, and a special court in Raipur granted them eight days’ custody. During interrogation, the police showed Chandrakar documentary and electronic evidence, and he gave them a full account of how the platform worked and of the network of panel operators in India. The court produced him on November 12 and remanded him to judicial custody until November 19.
The CBI said the platform is run from a head office abroad, and that a large network of panel operators carries out day-to-day operations in India. Panel operators create customer IDs, collect money via mule accounts, and then send profits overseas via hawala.
The CBI has described Mahadev Online Book as one of India’s largest illegal online betting syndicates, operating in cricket, football, card games, and a whole host of other events through its franchised panels.
The CBI has registered two FIRs after the Chhattisgarh govt decided to transfer the cases to the CBI. The case is worth an estimated Rs 6,000 crore (the ED have put a much higher figure on the proceeds).
The ED is also looking into the money-laundering aspect and interrogating Chandrakar, who is already in its custody. The ED have already filed multiple chargesheets naming the promoters, the panel operators, the hawala operators and several public servants. Other key persons (Ravi Uppal being the most prominent) are still abroad, and extradition proceedings are in progress. This year, the CBI arrested another alleged associate, Abhishek Kumar, when he arrived in the country from Dubai.
According to the CBI spokesperson, the probe is continuing into the roles of the other accused persons who are overseas (the facilitators of the operations and the public servants alleged to be involved). The CBI is taking steps to extradite the other absconding accused.
The CBI has also issued a public alert against online betting and gambling, warning that lending your bank account, SIM card, or ID to do so is itself a criminal act. The multi-state operation is the latest development in a case that has been going on for years and has involved multiple jurisdictions. They’ve been looking at both domestic network of operators and overseas command structure which ran syndicate.