Chhattisgarh police on Saturday, May 11 nabbed as many as five people in connection with the Mahadev Book Online Betting App (Mahadev App). The arrest was made after the agencies arrested, dismissed police personnel, and accused Arjun Yadav of the multi-crore alleged scam on May 9.
Based on the inputs received from Yadav, the Raipur police have raided and arrested five people from Kolkata, The nabbed accused are all residents of Bihar and have been operating the Mahadev app, according to police on Sunday.
Those arrested by the police have been indulged in operating betting on IPL matches via panel 364 of the Mahadev app. The police have also recovered a total of 7 laptops, 19 mobile phones, 7 passbooks, 5 cheque books, and 10 ATM cards from the possession of the accused.
As of now, the Raipur police have arrested a total of 13 bookies in connection with the online gambling platform. Briefing the media about the development Inspector General (IG), Amresh Mishra said that the Raipur police has registered a flagship case against the Mahadev app, action will be taken against the panels linked to the app which are being operational across the country.
This is the 9th panel against which action has been taken, this panel has been allotted to the dismissed constable Arjun Yadav. Five accused have been arrested, while transactions of crores of rupees have been identified, our investigation into the matter is underway, added IG, Mishra.
Accounts linked to the app are being seized in large numbers thus the panel operators/owners have been instructed by the governing body/service centre to move toward crypto currencies, as they (people involved in operating the syndicate) are facing issues in opening accounts, said IG, Mishra further.
रायपुर पुलिस द्वारा महादेव 364 पैनल से आई.पी.एल. सट्टा संचालित करते 05 अंतर्राज्यीय सटोरिये कलकत्ता पश्चिम बंगाल से गिरफ्तार किया गया!#raipurpolice #raipur pic.twitter.com/uFisVgnVoo
— Raipur Police (@RaipurPoliceCG) May 12, 2024
Further the IG informed that the said panel was allotted to Arjun Yadav and the people arrested by the police have acquired it on lease from Yadav.
Arrest of Arjun Yadav
It is worth mentioning here that earlier the Economic Offence Wing and Anti-Corruption Bureau (EOW/ACB) had arrested Arjun Yadav, an absconding accused in the case on May 9.
Yadav was detained from Panchmadhi, following which he was taken to the agency office, where he was arrested after the initial interrogation. He was later produced before the court from where he was sent to remand till Tuesday, May 14.
Yadav was held amidst the agency launched a major crackdown in the case on Thursday itself under which raids were conducted at a total of 29 locations across separate districts of the State.
According to the details provided by the agency in a press issue, a total of 18 premises were raided by the EOW/ACB officials in Durg district, while other teams of the agency raided as many as 7 locations in the state’s capital, Raipur.
This includes raids on a number of jewellery shops and houses of their owners. The agency officials also conducted raids on locations linked to one of the accused, ASI Chandrabhushan Verma’s, along raiding house of Dilip Chandrakar, uncle of one of the founder of the online betting platform, Saurav Chandrakar in Durg.
A separate team of the EOW/ACB also reached the house of head constable Vijay Pandey in Charama of Kanker who is absconding in the case, though the premises was found to be locked following which the house was sealed by the officials.
It is worth mentioning here that the EOW/ACB initiated a fresh probe into the case after filing an FIR on the basis of Enforcement Directorate’s (ED’s) report in March this year.
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