Days before polls, ED seizes about Rs 5 cr cash, links it to Mahadev app

When contacted, an ED official said, “Acting on an intelligence input that large amount of cash is being moved in Chhattisgarh by the promoters of Mahadev app in relation to Assembly Elections, a search operation is  going on from Thursday afternoon.”

“The ED intercepted a (human) courier of the Mahadev app who was sent from the United Arab Emirates, especially to deliver large amounts of cash for election expenses to a political party,” the official said.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had alleged that two central agencies — CRPF and ED — may be used by BJP in the state, to influence voters.

The Mahadev book maintained a number of websites to facilitate illegal gambling and betting. While the app began its operations in 2017, it caught the fancy of people in 2020 during the pandemic. Sources in the ED said the app’s promoters in Dubai may have amassed as much as Rs 5,000 crore.

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.

On Thursday, ED officials said they caught a suspect in a hotel in Raipur and seized Rs 3.12 crore in cash from his vehicle. Another Rs 1.8 crore in cash was found at his hideout in Bhilai.

The ED officials said a few benami bank accounts of Mahadev app were also found in which around Rs 10 crore is lying and seized. “We suspect the role of some government servants in this,” the source claimed, adding search operations were on at the time of going to press on Thursday night.

According to Baghel, while everything was being checked, big boxes bought by CRPF in vehicles were not being checked. “Let ED do its work. But I want to tell the Election Commission that it must check their (CRPF) vehicles too because BJP has accepted defeat and this is their last bid,” he told media persons.

“There is a lot of presence of CRPF here, so what is the motive of bringing more force? So the motive may be bringing cash or something else. BJP can go down to any level to win the election. This is a very serious issue and the Congress party will file a complaint to the Election Commission. A special plane landed yesterday and the Airports Authority of India did not check it as it is a government plane. Now the vehicles have dispersed and wherever these vehicles go checking needs to be done,” he said.