Mahadev App Scam: Chhattisgarh EOW Files FIR Against Former CM Baghel, Others

Days after a probe into the multi-crore Mahadev online book illegal betting app scam revealed that transactions of fictitious companies were used for investments in the stock market, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in Chhattisgarh has filed a case against former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and others based on an investigation report submitted by the enforcement directorate.

“The ED has been investigating the case and based on its report submitted to the state’s Economic Offences Wing/Anti-Corruption Bureau, the FIR was registered against Baghel and others at the EOW police station here on March 4,” PTI reported, citing a senior EOW official.

Baghel, along with the app promoters Ravi Uppal, Saurabh Chandrakar, Shubham Soni, Anil Kumar Agrawal and 14 others have been named as accused in the FIR, the report said.

Some bureaucrats, police officials, officers on special duty (OSDs) and other unidentified private persons have also been made accused (without being named) in the case, the EOW official said.

The case has been registered under various Indian Penal Code Sections, including 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document), and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, the official said.

The FIR, citing the ED’s report, stated that Mahadev Book App promoters Uppal, Chandrakar, Soni and Agrawal created the platform for live online betting and indulged in betting through Whatsapp, Facebook and Telegram and other social media platforms.

The promoters created different platforms and conducted illegal acts of online betting through panel operators/ branch operators. They kept 70 to 80% of the illegal earnings with them and distributed the rest of the money to panel operators/ branch operators, it alleged.

The promoters and panel operators fetched around INR 450 Cr per month through the online betting app after the lockdown was imposed in 2020 (following the outbreak of Covid), the FIR claimed.

The Mahadev scam gained attention following Chandrakar’s opulent wedding in Dubai in February 2023, allegedly costing north of INR 200 Cr. The wedding saw performances by the likes of Vishal Dadlani, Tiger Shroff, Sunny Leone, Neha Kakkar, Nushrratt Bharuccha, and many others.

Seven months later, the ED began its crackdown and announced that it unearthed the Mahadev app online betting scam. The agency also questioned multiple Bollywood celebrities in the case. In January this year, it filed a chargesheet in a special court in Raipur following its probe.