Mahadev betting probe: ED attaches assets worth Rs 91.82 crore; bank balances, Dubai properties frozen

RAIPUR: Enforcement Directorate’s Raipur zonal office has provisionally attached movable and immovable properties worth about Rs 91.82 crore in its money-laundering investigation into the “illegal betting operations” of Mahadev Online Book (MOB) and Skyexchange.com, the agency has said in a statement.The action, taken under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), covers bank balances and high-value real estate that investigators say represent “proceeds of crime” routed through shell entities, hawala networks and foreign portfolio investments (FPIs) before being brought back into India.In its latest attachment, ED has frozen bank balances of Rs 74.28 crore held in the names of M/s Perfect Plan Investment LLC and M/s Exim General Trading – GZCO, entities linked to alleged Mahadev app promoter Saurabh Chandrakar and his associates Anil Kumar Agarwal and Vikas Chhaparia. These companies, ED says, were used to conceal and project illicit betting income as clean, overseas investments.Separately, properties worth Rs 17.5 crore have been attached in the name of Dubai-based hawala operator Gagan Gupta, described as a close associate of Hari Shankar Tibrewal, the alleged owner of Skyexchange.com. The attached assets include high-value real estate and liquid holdings in the names of Gupta’s family members, which ED claims were purchased using cash generated from illegal betting operations.According to ED’s findings, illegal betting apps such as Mahadev Online Book and Skyexchange.com generated “huge” amounts of proceeds of crime by hosting large-scale online betting and gambling through a network of websites and mobile applications.The Mahadev Online Book application was allegedly designed as a back-end platform to onboard customers for multiple betting sites and manage their financial operations. In practice, investigators say, the games were “rigged” so that customers ultimately lost money, with thousands of crores of rupees collected and distributed on a pre-decided profit-sharing basis.To move and disguise this money, the syndicate allegedly used a web of benami bank accounts opened with fabricated or stolen KYC documents. Transactions were kept outside regular accounting systems and were not reported to the tax authorities, ED has said.The investigation has further revealed that funds collected through these platforms were sent out of India via hawala channels, trade-based money laundering and crypto-assets. The money was then allegedly routed back and invested in the Indian stock market in the guise of Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI).ED says it has unearthed a sophisticated “cashback” racket linked to this loop: FPI entities would invest heavily in listed Indian companies and, in return, company promoters were required to secretly pay back 30–40% of the investment amount in cash.Gagan Gupta has been identified as a beneficiary of at least Rs 98 crore from such “cashback” transactions, involving deals linked to Salasar Techno Engineering Ltd and Tiger Logistics Ltd, according to the agency.Mahadev Online Book was allegedly promoted by Saurabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, both originally from Chhattisgarh and currently believed to be based in the UAE (Dubai). The Union government is pursuing their extradition, officials have said earlier.Investigators describe Mahadev as an “umbrella syndicate” that provided end-to-end services — from illegal betting and payment collection to laundering and overseas parking of funds — through layered networks of operators, shell entities and hawala links.ED officials have also indicated that several high-profile politicians and bureaucrats from Chhattisgarh remain under the scanner in connection with suspected payoffs and protection money linked to the betting network.So far, the agency says it has conducted searches at more than 175 premises across multiple states in this case. As a result of the ongoing probe, movable and immovable assets worth around Rs 2,600 crore have been seized, frozen or attached.ED has arrested 13 persons in connection with the racket, and 74 entities — individuals as well as companies — have been named as accused in five prosecution complaints (charge sheets) filed before the PMLA court so far.