Raipur
The Central Investigation Agency CBI has also named former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel as accused in the Mahadev Betting App case. In the FIR lodged by the CBI on 18 December 2024, now the name of Bhupesh Baghel is also mentioned. In this case, the CBI has filed a case against a total of 21 people including Bhupesh Baghel.
CBI has registered FIR against 21 including former CM Bhupesh Baghel
According to the report, the CBI has given the Promoter Ravi Uppal Saurabh Chandrakar of Mahadev Satta app in FIR in FIR, Shubham Soni and Pintu Chandrabhushan Verma Aseem Das Satish Chandrakar Nitish Diwan Nitish Dewan Anil Aggarwal Vikas Kriya Rohit Gulati Vishal Ahuja Dhiraj Dhiraj Ahuja Anil Ambani, Sunil Ambani, Sunil Damani, Bhim Singh Yadav, Harishankar Triblel OSD and private individuals are included.
Enforcement Directorate is investigating the money laundering case related to Mahadev app
Significantly, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating the money laundering case related to the Mahadev app, which was revealed during the previous Congress government in the state. The ED had earlier conducted several raids in this case in the state and had filed prosecution complaints (charge sheet) against Saurabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, two main promoters of illegal betting and gaming apps.
What is this app?
The Mahadev Betting app was created for online betting. On this, users could play card games and other games like Poker. Through this app, betting was also done in sports like cricket, football, badminton, tennis. It was started in 2019 by Saurabh Chandrakar, a resident of Bhilai, Chhattisgarh.
What happened so far?
Recently, the Enforcement Directorate raided Baghel’s residence in the alleged liquor scam case. Last year, the state government handed over 70 cases registered in various police stations related to the alleged Mahadev scam and a case registered in the Economic Offenses Investigation Branch (EOW) in various police stations related to the alleged Mahadev scam.
Mahadev app had a monthly turnover of Mahadev app
Mahadev Book App used to work as a multi-level marketing model. In this, clients were added through ‘panel owners’. Those who used to carry forward the betting process by making user ID. This panel system used to act like a kind of franchise. Where promoters used to give their panel owners up to 70-80%. Panel owners associated with the app used to contact customers through WhatsApp and provide them with user IDs and passwords for betting. The monthly turnover of this app reached Rs 455 crore.
What has been revealed in the investigation so far?
Investigation has revealed that the promoters had given huge amount to many government officials as ‘Protection Money’ to run this illegal betting network smoothly. The CBI has seized several important digital and documentary evidence during the raid. Which includes records related to financial transactions. The investigation of this case is also near ED. According to the ED, on 3 November 2023, a courier Asim Das was arrested in the same case and cash worth Rs 5.39 crore was recovered from him. During interrogation, he told that this amount was for Bhupesh Baghel. It was also revealed in the investigation that the promoters of Mahadev Book kept their network safe by bribing many government officials and politicians. The CBI is still investigating the case and soon there may be more big revelations.
