Sourabh Chandrakar: CBI likely to seek further custody today; ED may have to wait

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to seek Mahadev online betting fraud mastermind Sourabh Chandrakar’s further custody on Thursday from a Raipur court, where he will be produced upon completion of his eight-days’ remand, people familiar with the development told HT.

CBI officials escort Sourabh Chandrakar following his extradition from Oman last week. (PTI photo)The above people added that they need to unearth details of his accomplices and public servants he allegedly bribed in Chhattisgarh to safely run the illegal betting empire.

This development means that the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is conducting a parallel money laundering investigation in the Mahadev fraud and has identified proceeds of crime worth ₹94,000 crore, may have to wait more before it could get Sourabh’s custody and interrogate him.

“We have identified some of his associates in India who helped him run illegal betting panels but we need to get to the bottom of the entire conspiracy and identify the conniving public servants in Chhattisgarh. So, we may ask for his further remand at the Raipur court on Thursday,” said an officer, who asked not to be named.

As exclusively reported by HT, Chandrakar was extradited from Oman on November 1 and taken into custody by the CBI. Since then, he has been questioned in Delhi and Raipur and confronted with crucial evidence in the multi-crore fraud.

While seeking his custody last week, CBI had said that it was crucial to identify police and administrative officials in Chhattisgarh who allegedly received huge amounts of money to allow the illegal operations to continue.

The CBI alleged that Chandrakar, other promoters and associates of Mahadev Book secured the protection of police and administrative officials and influential politicians by regularly paying them. The CBI has alleged that hawala operators were used to arrange and distribute the alleged protection money.

Police officers and employees were also allegedly engaged to channel these payments to police and administrative officials. Investigations have indicated that Chandrakar, co-founder Ravi Uppal and their associates promoted the Mahadev Book app and ran online betting operations through an extensive network of panel and branch operators.

The promoters allegedly retained 70-80% of the illegal earnings, while the remaining amount was distributed among panel operators, according to the CBI. The accused, CBI has said, arranged hundreds of bank accounts using forged documents to facilitate transactions involving the proceeds of crime.

These accounts were operated on a commission basis, while betting proceeds were transferred by panel operators to Chandrakar and other promoters in the UAE through multiple bank accounts, the agency alleged. A substantial portion of the illegal earnings was also allegedly spent on advertising betting websites and organising lavish annual events attended by celebrities.

The agency claimed that celebrities were paid from the proceeds generated through online betting According to the CBI, Chandrakar left India in 2022 to evade the process of law and deliberately remained abroad without joining the investigation.

Following his extradition from Oman, he was taken to Raipur in a private aircraft last Tuesday for production before the trial court. According to ED, Mahadev began its illegal operations in 2019-20 and continues to run across India, despite a ban on multiple platforms and apps linked to the racket.

The operations allow people to place illegal bets on poker and other card-based games, cricket, badminton, tennis, football matches and even election outcomes. According to ED, there are at least 3,200 betting panels across India and the UAE and around 1,000 WhatsApp operators at the main call centre in the UAE.

Around 70% to 80% of the profit gained by a panel is shared with the head office and the estimated earnings per month turn out to be ₹950 crore, the ED has alleged. The anti money laundering probe agency has estimated the proceedings linked to Mahadev Online Betting (MOB) and some linked platforms to be worth around ₹94,000 crore, out of which ₹4,000 to ₹5,000 crore has already been remitted to the promoters abroad.