The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday arrested four people while probing a money laundering case involving Mahadev online betting app, in which its two leading promoters, Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, who live in Dubai, may have accumulated more 20,000 Crores
ED has conducted 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. pic.twitter.com/GXHWCmKOuY
— ED (@dir_ed) September 15, 2023
Who is Saurabh Chandrakar : The name coming in the Enforcement Directorate raid is Saurabh Chandrakar ,
Chandrakar and Uppal began their journey as local bookies but eventually shifted abroad and created this illegal app to cover a larger audience. In their twenties, Chandrakar used to sell juice in Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, whereas Uppal was an engineering graduate. Later, in 2018, they moved to Dubai and started the platform.
Thereon, the duo went full-throttle with their app by enticing students, unemployed youth, farmers and others with the guarantee of making money in a short span. As the app extended its reach, it continued to skirt India’s foreign exchange, money-laundering and taxation regulations by letting its users use credit cards, UPI, debit cards and bank transfers for betting.
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Chandrakar then utilised the inactive or semi-active accounts for a small fee to make transactions. This made it challenging for authorities to track the transactions worth crores through multiple accounts.
In recent years, his app elevated Chandrakar to a standing where he dominated India’s illegal offshore gambling and went on to acquire brands like FairPlay, Reddy Anna and Lotus365. He even founded ingenious new brands under ‘Betbhai’ and Ambani Book’.
According to the ED, Mahadev Online Booking presents an illegal betting platform through various games like poker, card games, chance games, tennis, cricket, badminton, football and others. But the operations didn’t stop there as it also offered an avenue to gamble on different elections in India.