Officials linked to Chhattisgarh CMO took kickbacks to allow gaming App operate: ED

The case pertains to the Mahadev App racket, an online gaming platform that allegedly cheated people, where transactions close to Rs 5,000 crore are alleged to have been made. The ED on Wednesday conducted searches at around 10 locations, including the premises of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s political adviser, Vinod Verma, and two OSDs in his office. A businessman based in Bhilai was also raided by the agency.

Reacting to the raids, Baghel, who also had his birthday on Wednesday, tweeted, “Respected Prime Minister and Shri Amit Shah! Thank you very much for the priceless gift you have given by sending ED to my political adviser and my OSD and close friends on my birthday today.”

In a statement late Wednesday evening, the ED said, “ASI Chandrabhushan Verma was acting as the main liasioner on ground in Chhattisgarh. He, along with Satish Chandrakar, was receiving hefty monthly money via Hawala from Dubai-based promoters of Mahadev Online Book and were distributing the same to senior police officers and leaders politically connected to CMO as ‘protection money’.”

The agency has claimed that its probe has revealed that around Rs 65 crore in cash was received by ASI Verma and he had distributed bribes to senior police officers and politicians after keeping his cut.

“ED investigation has revealed that although ASI Chandrabushan Verma, is not a very senior officer in the Police hierarchy, but through his relationship with Vinod Verma (Political Adviser to CM) and with the help of money power received from kickbacks sent by Ravi Uppal in Dubai, he has managed to influence senior officers. ASI Verma has admitted before ED that he was receiving and paying large monthly bribes to many power people,” ED has said.

“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 who have received hefty kickbacks on a monthly/regular basis,” it added.

The agency has claimed that as part of the operations, a huge number of bank accounts in the name of unsuspecting people were opened by the promoters and the App’s panel operators. Most of the bank accounts were opened in Chhattisgarh only even as multiple call centres were being run from abroad to assist the players and panel operators.

Following the raids, the Congress hit out at the BJP government. “Strongly condemn the ED raids on the staff members of Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel. Completely out of the race in the upcoming elections, the BJP is trying its dirtiest tricks to intimidate and rattle the Congress. However, we have the support of 3 crore Chhattisgarhis and such cheap tactics will not affect us, but they only show the BJP’s desperation,” AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal posted on ‘X’, formerly Twitter.

Reacting to the development, Congress’ media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said, “The ongoing ED raids in Chhattisgarh are a clear reaction to all the pre-poll surveys that have predicted a massive rout for the BJP.” “Our pro-people Congress government will not get bogged down by such threats. We have the power of the people behind us,” Khera said in a post on ‘X’.