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Betting Rackets
Former Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan was on Thursday questioned for around eight hours by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged illegal betting app-linked money laundering case, official sources said. He entered the office of the federal probe agency in central Delhi around 11 am and left after 7 PM. The agency recorded his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as part of this investigation linked to an "illegal" betting app named 1xBet, the sources said. The 39-year-old former India opener is understood to have been linked to the app through certain endorsements. The ED wants to understand his links with this app during the questioning. The agency is probing multiple such cases involving illegal betting apps that are alleged to have duped numerous people and investors worth crores of rupees or have evaded a huge amount of taxes. Last month, former cricketer Suresh Raina was questioned in this case by the federal probe agency. More such sportspe
The Supreme Court on Friday sought the Centre's response on a PIL seeking to regulate all online and offline betting applications. A bench of justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh issued the notice on a plea filed by K A Paul, who claimed that many children committed suicide after getting involved in online betting and gambling applications. The petitioner also alleged that a lot of online influencers, actors and cricketers were promoting these online apps due to which children were getting lured to betting. Paul, who appeared in person in the court, said, "I am here on behalf of millions of parents whose children have died in the past couple of years. More than 1,023 people committed suicide in Telangana, as 25 Bollywood and Tollywood actors/influencers played with the lives of the innocents." He also claimed that an FIR was lodged in Telangana against the influencers, as the matter violated fundamental rights. The bench said it cannot do much as these were aberrations of soci
The Chhattisgarh police have arrested 14 persons from many states for allegedly accepting bets on the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) matches via Mahadev betting apps, a police official said on Wednesday. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is already investigating the Mahadev app betting scam in Chhattisgarh. Of 14 arrested, six hail from Chhattisgarh, three from Jharkhand, two from Madhya Pradesh and one each from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Raipur Range Inspector General of Police Amresh Mishra said. Eight of them were nabbed from Kolkata and six from Guwahati, he said. They were caught based on the statement of one Nikhil Wadhwani, who was arrested on April 13, for accepting online bets on IPL matches, he added . The police seized 67 mobile phones, eight laptops, four routers, 94 ATM cards, 15 SIM cards, 32 bank passbooks, three bank cheque books, one security camera, and betting records transaction records worth Rs 30 lakh from them, the official said. The arr
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it has conducted fresh searches in Kolkata in the Mahadev online betting-linked money laundering case and has frozen securities and deposits worth more than Rs 130 crore. The searches were conducted on Thursday, the agency said in a statement. The case pertains to an ongoing investigation by the federal agency in which a number of high-ranking politicians and bureaucrats from Chhattisgarh are alleged to have been involved. During the searches conducted in Kolkata, securities, bonds and demat accounts worth Rs 130.57 crore were frozen under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the ED said. The agency has alleged that its probe into the Mahadev Online Book (MOB) gaming and betting app has shown the involvement of various high-ranking politicians and bureaucrats from Chhattisgarh, the state where the two main promoters -- Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal -- of the app hail from. It has said the MOB app is an umbr
The Supreme Court on Thursday gave bail to Chhattisgarh-based businessman Sunil Dammani, arrested by the ED in August last year in a money laundering case linked to the Mahadev illegal gambling app, and said it was doing so without getting into the merit of the allegations. A bench comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra noted that Dammani has been in custody since August 23, 2023 and set aside the Chhattisgarh High Court order denying him bail. "Without saying anything on merits, we are of the view that the appellant may be released on bail subject to bail conditions. "Appellant is ordered to be released on bail if not required in any other investigation, subject to the condition that he shall mark his presence every 15 days at the ED office in the concerned district. The appellant shall not leave the country without prior permission of the trial court," the bench said. As the hearing commenced, Dammani's counsel, senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, told the court that the ...
The special investigation team of Mumbai cyber cell has detained actor Sahil Khan from Chhattisgarh in connection with the Mahadev betting app case, an official said on Sunday. The actor was apprehended from Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh on Saturday after the Bombay High Court rejected his pre-arrest bail plea, he said. Khan was recently questioned by the SIT in connection with the case. The SIT has been conducting a probe into the alleged illegal transactions between certain financial and real estate firms in the state and the promoters of the controversial Mahadev betting app. The size of the scam is about Rs 15,000 crore, as per the first information report (FIR) registered by the police in the case. An investigation is underway against Khan and 31 other individuals. The probe involves examining their bank accounts, mobile phones, laptops, and all technical equipment, according to the police. So far, one person has been arrested in the case and further investigation is underway, t
Ravi Uppal, one of the two main owners of the Mahadev online betting app, has been detained in Dubai by the local police on the basis of a red notice issued by the Interpol at the behest of the ED, official sources said Wednesday. Uppal, 43, was detained last week in that country and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) authorities are in touch with the Dubai authorities to get him deported to India, they said. Uppal is being probed by the ED in a money laundering case linked to alleged illegal betting apart from the Chhattisgarh Police and Mumbai Police. The federal probe agency had filed a money laundering charge sheet against Uppal and another promoter of the Internet-based platform, Sourabh Chandrakar, before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Chhattisgarh's Raipur in October. A red notice was subsequently issued by the Interpol on the basis of ED's request. The agency had informed the court in the charge sheet that Uppal has taken a passport of Vanuatu,
Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday rejected the Congress' claim that Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel had first raised the demand to ban the controversial Mahadev App months ago but the Centre failed to act. Chandrasekhar alleged that Congress is creating a "new story" claiming to have written to the Centre two months back only in the wake of the disclosure that those who run this app have paid Rs 508 crore. Hitting back at Congress, the MoS for Electronics and Information Technology alleged the Baghel government deliberately stretched the investigation for one-and-a-half years as they wanted to take out Rs 508 crore from the betting app. Notably, the Centre on Sunday issued blocking orders against the Mahadev app and Reddyannaprestopro along with 20 other illegal betting platforms at the request of the Enforcement Directorate. In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Monday said the Enforcement Directorate has been investigating the Mahadev