Representative Image of Enforcement Directorate
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has made two additional arrests in the ongoing investigation of alleged money laundering in Mahadev Online Book app. The arrested accused, Girish Talreja and Suraj Chowkhani, have been sent to one-day judicial custody by the court.
According to the details, the accused were arrested following their statements, which were found to be contradictory to the evidence possessed by the investigative agency, according to the ED’s councillor in the case of Saurabh Pandey on Sunday, March 3.
Speaking with the media, Pandey disclosed that the last arrest made by the ED in the money laundering case was of Nitish Diwan, and to verify the factual correctness of the statements of Diwan, the statements of these two are recorded, though the statements made by the two are contradictory to the evidence secured by the ED leading to the arrest of the duo.
Notably, Deewan, a resident of Bhilai, was arrested by the ED in the mid of February this year for his alleged association with Saurabh Chandrakar, one of the founders of the online betting platform.
According to the information received, Deewan was a part of the panel operator team of the betting platform and was primarily tasked with converting the money into crypto currencies. He was also accused of investing the money on behalf of the promoters of the app during his stay at Dubai.
“One of the arrested person was held on Saturday in Bhopal, while the other, Suraj Chownki was arrested on Sunday. Both Talreja and Chowkhani are connected with the Mahadev app, one of the IDs of Mahadev app namely “Lotus 365” was managed by the key accused Saurabh Chandrakar and Girish Talreja jointly, according to the statement of a few people, added Pandey.
Further, Pandey informed us that the other arrested person, Suraj Chowkhani, is associated with Harishankar Tibrewal, a man with close links with the people associated with the Mahadev online book app. The court has granted a one-day judicial remand; however, we had demanded a 14-day custodial remand.
ED raided 15 locations across separate states
It is to be noted that the ED has recently conducted raids on as many as 15 locations across separate cities in connection with the ongoing money laundering investigation in Mahadev Online Book leading to the recovery of cash of Rs1.86 crore and valuables worth Rs1.78 crores.
Sharing the details of the raids, the economic intelligence agency has informed us that the searches were conducted against the money laundering networks linked with Mahadev Online Book in Gurugram, Kolkata, Delhi, Indore, Mumbai and Raipur which resulted in seizure of large numbers of incriminating evidence, including digital data and identification of assets. The ED has further informed that the total attachment/ freezing in the case stands at Rs1296.05 crores.
The Mahadev Book Online Betting Platform
The Mahadev betting app used an online book betting application to enrol new users, create user IDs, and launder money through a string of Benami bank accounts, the application reportedly generated an amount close to Rs 200 crores daily, leading to speculation of accumulation of thousands of crores (around Rs 5000 crore) by the app promoters.
As per the ED’s investigation so far, Saurabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, who hail from Bhilai in Chattisgarh, are the two main promoters of the Mahadev betting platform. The investigation in the case has reportedly also uncovered alleged Hawala transactions in UAE and Pakistan. According to the ED the key accused, Ravi and Chandrakar were running their operations from Dubai and had created an empire for themselves.
Investigation by Enforcement Directorate
The ED began its probe after one of the promoters of the app, Saurabh Chandrakar, arranged a lavish wedding in UAE where private jets were used by the accused to ferry the family members from Nagpur in February this year. The accused allegedly spent around 250 crores in the wedding ceremony, where a number of Bollywood stars also performed. Later on, it was revealed that the whole amount spent on the wedding was paid entirely in cash.
ED arrested ASI Chnadrabhushan Verma of Chhattisgarh police along with Hawala operators Satish Chandrakar, Anil and Sunil Dammani under the PMLA act in August 2023. The agency also conducted raids at 39 locations across Raipur, Bhopal, Mumbai and Kolkata and seized illegal assets worth Rs 417 crore in September last year.
In between, the agency had also summoned a number of Bollywood actors, including Ranvir and Shraddha Kapoor, to inquire about the details of the payment made to them by the promoters. Based on the investigation, a PMLA special court at Raipur had issued non-bailable warrants against the suspects, leading to the red-corner notice issued against the key accused in October.
Notably, earlier Ravi Uppal, one of the prime accused of the Mahadev betting app scam, was detained by authorities in Dubai, Uppal was detained by the Dubai police in December last year, and the sleuths of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are in reported to be in touch with the UAE authorities for his extradition. A couple of weeks after Uppal’s arrest it was reported that the other prime accused, Saurabh Chandrakar, was also put under movement restriction by the authorities in UAE.
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