Mahadev Betting App Owner Ravi Uppal detained in Dubai, to be extradited to India soon

In a significant development in the Mahadev online betting app fraud case, Dubai Police detained Ravi Uppal, one of the two prime accused. Uppal, 43, is one of the two main owners of the Mahadev online betting app.

He has been detained in Dubai by the local police on the basis of a red notice issued by the Interpol at the behest of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the official sources said Wednesday. The ED officials are in touch with the Dubai authorities to get him deported to India, they added.

What are charges against Uppal?

According to the officials, Uppal is being probed by the probe agency in a money laundering case linked to alleged illegal betting. Chhattisgarh Police and Mumbai Police are also investigating into the matter.

The ED had filed a money laundering charge sheet against Uppal and another promoter of the Internet-based platform, Sourabh Chandrakar, before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Chhattisgarh's Raipur in October.

A red notice was subsequently issued by the Interpol on the basis of ED's request. The agency had informed the court in the chargesheet that Uppal has taken a passport of Vanuatu, an island country in the Pacific Ocean, even as he had not renounced Indian citizenship.

FIR against 32 people, including actor Sahil Khan

Mumbai Police registered an FIR against 32 people, including Saurabh Chandrakar and Ravi Upal. Actor Sahil Khan is also an accused in the same FIR and now Sahil Khan has approached the court to avoid arrest. Accused Khan filed an anticipatory bail petition (ABA) in the Sessions Court of Mumbai. The same police has opposed Khan's ABA saying if the accused gets bail, he may tamper with the evidence.

The police said the complainant in this case has told them that underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's brother Mushtaqin is also involved in the case and Sahil Khan has to be interrogated in that context.

According to the police, the accused have created 67 different betting sites and through them people are made to place bets illegally. They have used more than 2,000 SIM cards to withdraw and deposit money, they said.  Around 1700 fake bank accounts were created to send money out of the country and convert it into cryptocurrency. These documents were also created in different banks with the help of fake documents.

The police also said the accused have used more than 1,000 Telegram channels and WhatsApp to promote their betting web portal. The probe officials sought more information from all banks, betting web portals and SIM card issuing companies.

Uppal generated and enjoyed proceeds of crime and is involved in their concealment and layering, the ED said in the prosecution complaint. It had alleged Uppal was "looking after the delivery of the liasioning money to the bureaucrats and politicians of Chhattisgarh through Chandrabhushan Verma", an assistant sub inspector of police, and some others.

The projected proceeds of crime in this case is about Rs 6,000 crore, as per the ED. The agency had claimed in November, just before the first phase of Chhattisgarh assembly polls, that forensic analysis and statement made by a 'cash courier' named Asim Das have led to "startling allegations" that Mahadev betting app promoters have paid about Rs 508 crore to former Chhattisgarh chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel so far, adding that these allegations were "subject matter of investigation".

Das had later submitted before the special court in Raipur that he had been framed as part of a conspiracy and he had never delivered cash to politicians.

The ED investigation has shown that Mahadev Online Book App is run from a central head office in the UAE, officials said. It operates by franchising "Panel/Branches" to their known associates on 70-30 per cent profit ratio, it had said.

Large scale hawala operations are done to siphon off the proceeds of betting to off-shore accounts, it had said.

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