Chhattisgarh’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB)/Economic Offence Wing (EOW) announced the arrest of two individuals in connection with the alleged illegal activities of the Mahadev online gaming and betting application, which purportedly involved senior politicians and bureaucrats from the state.
The arrest of the duo, apprehended from New Delhi and Goa, follows the lodging of a case by the state probe agency on March 4, based on a report submitted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has been investigating the money laundering angle in the scandal for over a year.
“Rahul Vakte was located in Delhi, while Ritesh Yadav was found in Goa,” stated an ACB/EOW release.
The two suspects were brought before a Raipur court, which remanded them to the custody of ACB/EOW for six days, officials confirmed.
According to the statement, the duo had been evading arrest since August last year, when an assistant sub-inspector of state police, Chandrabhushan Verma, was apprehended (by the ED) in connection with the alleged scam.
“Vakte was allegedly involved in transferring money received through hawala to Verma. Three firms registered in Vakte’s name received significant cash deposits. Yadav was purportedly managing the panel of the online betting app (Mahadev) and facilitated Verma and another individual, Satish Chandrakar, after receiving funds through hawala. Rs 43 lakh of hawala money has been frozen,” the statement elaborated.
Chandrakar was previously arrested by the ED in its money laundering investigation.
Yadav operated the Mahadev betting app panel in Pune (Maharashtra). With the support of Pune police, the state’s ACB conducted raids and arrested eight individuals involved in operating the betting app panel. Further action against them is underway by Pune police, the statement added.
The FIR filed by ACB/EOW in the alleged Mahadev betting app scandal lists former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel of the Congress, along with app promoters Ravi Uppal, Saurabh Chandrakar, Shubham Soni, and Anil Kumar Agrawal, among 14 others as accused.
The case was registered under sections 120b (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), and others of the IPC, as well as sections 7 and 11 of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, as previously stated by ACB/EOW.
Citing the ED report, the FIR stated that the Mahadev app promoters engaged in online betting and gambling through various social media platforms, garnering significant illegal earnings, especially after the imposition of lockdown in 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The ED has attached several immovable properties provisionally, it added.
In January, former CM Baghel, who lost power in December 2023, criticized the ED’s actions in the Mahadev betting app case as a “political conspiracy” and accused the federal agency of acting at the behest of its “political masters”.
Thus far, the ED has arrested nine individuals in the money laundering-related case and filed two chargesheets in a Raipur court, including against the two main promoters of the alleged illegal betting and gaming app, Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal. Multiple raids were conducted earlier.
The projected proceeds of crime in the money laundering case amount to about Rs 6,000 crore, according to the ED.
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