The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday arrested four in the Mahadev online betting case in which its two main promoters who are based in Dubai may have amassed as much as Rs 5,000 crores. The ED also seized assets of Rs 417 crore.
According to the ED, Mahadev Online Booking offers an illegal betting platform through different games like poker, card games, chance games, tennis, cricket, badminton, football and others. But that's not all the platform offered. It also offered an avenue to bet on different elections in India.
The operations of the Mahadev Online Bookings were managed by Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, who run it from Dubai. The two promoters have complete control over the operation and hold 80 per cent of the profits. According to ED the two have together made close to Rs 5,000 crore from this app.
They used angadiya entities (informal couriers) to transport liquid case and precious metals through bullion trades and jewellers in exchange for a small fee. These angadiya entities were raided by the ED in eight locations.
Through the search it was found that the angadiya entities delivered money to an event management firm in Mumbai's Malad region. This is the same firm that Chandrakar hired to take care of his wedding preparations in February.
Chandrakar in total spent Rs 200 crore for his wedding in Dubai from this over Rs 100 crore was given to the Malad based event firm. He even arranged private jets for people travelling to attend the wedding. This also included celebrities who were hired to perform at his wedding.
The ED found receipts of Rs 112 crore hawala money during its search at the premises of Yogesh Papat, Mithilesh and another linked organiser.
Saurabh Chandraka's Rs 200 Crore star-studded marriage
Chandrakar's wedding was attended by stars like Atif Aslam, Vishal Dadlani, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Tiger Shroff, Ali Asgar, Sunny Leone, Krisi Kharbanda, Elli AvrRam, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Bharti Singh, Krusha Abhishek and Bhagyashree.
The ED is also looking to take statements from celebrities that were paid and invited to the wedding.
Additionally Mahadev Book also hired celebrities to promote its apps to fans.
Not just his wedding, Bollywood stars even attended a third anniversary party on September 18, 2022. Stars like Sanjay Dutt, Kapil Sharma, Aftab Shivdasani, Sukhvinder Singh, Sophie Chaudhary, Daisy Shah, Urvasahi Rautela, Nargis Fakhri, Neha Sharma and so many more were present.
Chandrakar's humble beginnings
Both Chandrakar and Uppal began as local bookies but then moved abroad and started this illegal app to operate for a larger audience. It is also known that Chandrakar in his twenties used to sell juice in Bhilai in Chhattisgarh whereas Uppal is known to be an engineering graduate.
Sourabh Chandrakar, Ravi Uppal |
It was in 2018 that they both migrated to Dubai and started the platform. Since then there was no looking back for them as they began luring students, unemployed youth, farmers and others with the promise of making a quick buck. As the app started spreading the app went on to circumvent India's foreign exchange, money-laundering and taxation regulations by allowing its users to use credit cards, UPI, debit cards and bank transfer for betting.
Chandrakant then used the inactive or semi-active accounts for a small fee to make transactions making it difficult to track the crores transactions through multiple accounts.
In the last few years the app helped Chandrakar grow to a point where he monopolised India's illegal offshore gambling and went on to acquire brands like FairPlay, Reddy Anna and Lotus365. He even launched ingenious new brands under the name 'Betbhai' and Ambani Book'.
