ED summons Ranbir Kapoor: What is the Mahadev online betting racket?

Its main promoters, originally from Chhattisgarh, are based out of Dubai, and may have amassed as much as Rs 5,000 crores through the platform. We take a look at how the app operated, who was involved in it, and what the ED investigation has revealed so far.

How the app operated

As per the ED, M/s Mahadev Book maintains various websites and operates a number of closed groups on chat apps. They advertise contact numbers over websites and lure people to play to earn profits. These numbers can only be contacted over WhatsApp.

Once a potential user makes contact, she is provided with two separate contact numbers. One to be contacted for depositing money and collecting points in the User IDs used to make bets. The other for contacting the website to encash the accumulated points in the designated IDs.

The IDs are generally created on websites such as laser247.com, laserbook247.com, http://www.betbhai.com, betbook247.com, tigerexch247.com, and http://www.cricketbet9.com – depending on the need and preference of the bettors.

The operations to collect money, create User IDs, distribute these ID credentials customers, and distribute any money earned are carried out by panel/branch owners. Players have to deposit money in benami accounts shared online and then are assigned panels by the head office in Dubai. Payouts are also done using benami bank accounts. These bank accounts are either opened fraudulently or are loaned for commission.

Importantly, all the games are rigged in a manner that overall, the panel owners do not lose money and despite initial profits to the user, ultimately, they are always likely to incur losses.

The men behind Mahadev Book

As per police sources, the app began its operations in 2017, but its reach among users saw a huge increase during the pandemic in 2020, continuing to go up till 2022.

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Ravi Uppal (File)

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Saurabh Chandrakar (File)

Sourabh Chandrakar, 28, and Ravi Uppal, 43, who hail from Bhilai, are the main promoters of Mahadev Online Book, and are running their operations from Dubai. They have total control over its operations and keep 80 per cent of the profits. ED sources said the duo is suspected to have made Rs 5,000 crores from this app.

The duo have been staying in Dubai for nearly two years. Prior to that, they frequently travelled to Dubai as well. Uppal is said to be an engineering graduate. The qualifications of Chandrakar are not known. Chhattisgarh police sources told The Indian Express that a look out notice was issued against them nearly three months ago.

Four arrested in August, hint at involvement of government officials

In August, the ED arrested four accused — businessmen brothers Sunil and Anil Dammani, assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Chandra Bhushan Verma, and Satish Chandrakar. All four accused are based out of Raipur.

As per the ED, those arrested helped the movement of illegal funds through hawala networks, or were involved in protecting the racket from police action.

As per ED sources, the ASI Verma is a low rung cop in Chhattisgarh Police who played a major role in protecting the main accused in the case from the authorities. For this protection, he collected a bribe of Rs 65 crore. Out of this, Rs 55 lakhs was passed on, each month, to the additional superintendents of police in the districts of Raipur and Durg, and Rs 75 lakhs was sent monthly to a few senior IPS officers posted in Durg, Raipur, and the intelligence wings of Chhattisgarh in 2022 and 2023.

ASI Verma, as per ED sources, was the main link between the main promoters operating from Dubai, and those in power in the Chhattisgarh government, to ensure the app operations ran smoothly. ASI Verma took hefty monthly bribes from the app promoters and in turn gave Uppal access to some top most government officials allegedly through his relative Vinod Verma, a political advisor to Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.

Vinod Verma, in a press conference on Thursday, claimed innocence and said that he is not a relative of ASI Verma. He termed the ED raids at his home as “dacoity” and their allegations as “fiction based on a defamatory and baseless news article”. Verma said he will go to court against the magazine for defamation.

An ED press note, however, stated, “ASI Verma has admitted that the bribe payments were enhanced after some action was done by Police in May 2022. The bribes were enhanced to water down the cases, to include non-bailable offences, and to restrict prosecution up to local punters and to prevent future action on their operations. Further, arrested accused have specifically named high ranking officials connected to CMO (Chief Minister’s Office) who have received hefty kickbacks on a monthly/regular basis.”

ED sources said they stated before court, “that ASI Verma with the help of his relative Verma and bribes sent by Uppal in Dubai, managed to corrupt the entire police system at Raipur and Durg districts.”

The two Dammani brothers own a jewellery shop and a petrol pump. They played a role in facilitating large scale hawala (illegal money transfer) movement of funds generated from the illegal business. This ill-gotten money was used to bribe police and politicians.

Dammani brothers took a commission of Rs 100 per lakh on the hawala funds moved by them and earned around Rs 6 lakh by transferring hawala funds worth Rs 80 to Rs 100 crores. The brothers were in touch with main accused Ravi Uppal over phone. They used their jewellery shop, Abhushan Jewelers, for hawala purposes and passed on this ill-gotten money to ASI Verma.

The fourth accused, Satish Chandrakar, through his contact ASI Verma, got raids carried out by police on two branches of Mahadev book in January 2021. In order to stop such raids, Chandrakar was given a panel/branch of the app to run for his own benefit.

Chhattisgarh Police action, before ED stepped in

The crack down by the Chhattisgarh Police began in 2021. Till date 75 FIRs have been registered by the Chhattisgarh Police and 429 accused have been arrested from across India.

A total of 191 laptops, 858 smart mobile phones, other betting related materials and luxury cars collectively worth about Rs 2.50 crore have been seized from the accused.

Chhattisgarh Police said more than 3033 bank accounts were used in this racket, in which so far about 1035 bank accounts have been frozen after an investigation. About Rs 15.50 crores is deposited in the said bank accounts.

FIRs have also been registered against the app operators in other states like Andhra Pradesh.

This is an edited version of a story originally published on August 25, 2023.