From comedian Kapil Sharma to famous Bollywood actors like Ranbir Kapoor, as celebrities line up before the Enforcement Directorate to help the agency understand the source of funding for owners of Mahadev Book Online Betting syndicate, sources said 57 celebrities, including actors, musicians, comedians, and mimicry artists attended at least two events hosted by the betting app since last year.
The ED, which is investigating the money laundering and hawala racket run by the syndicate, has in its possession two exhaustive lists of celebrities who are not accused in the case but can help the agency understand the money laundering racket and hawala flow within and outside the country.
The first list has 34 celebrities, many of them high-profile Bollywood stars, who are learnt to have attended a gala event on September 18, 2022, ostensibly to celebrate the success of the app. The second list has 23 celebrities, including former actors, who attended the wedding of Mahadev app promoter Saurabh Chandrakar between February 10-14. Chandrakar is an accused in the ED case and a probe is going on to understand the funding pattern of the syndicate which leased a private jet to fly in family and friends from Nagpur to Dubai for the wedding. Besides Bollywood actors, a few music industry celebs, a couple of popular DJs and a Punjabi singer are said to have attended the gala event and wedding.
Under the lens is an overflowing sum of Rs 39,52,32,145 paid to different vendors in the country for the gala event.
The ED registered a case against Mahadev Book Online Betting syndicate under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, on the basis of chargesheet filed by Chhattisgarh Police in July last year naming local operators of the Mahadev Book Panels, Alok Singh Rajpoot, Rampravesh Sahu, Kharag alias Raja Singh and others, for being involved in online betting in live ludo, football, casino games etc. through Mahadev Book websites. Since the chargesheet was filed under IPC sections 120B and 420 which are scheduled offences under the PMLA, ED initiated a money laundering investigation. It conducted multiple searches in August in Chattisgarh, Bhopal and Mumbai. So far, ED has arrested a Chhattisgarh Police's assistant sub-inspector, Chandrabhushan Verma, for being the chief liaison officer of the betting app. Sources in the agency said he was collecting hawala payments and distributing them to senior police and political functionaries.
The ED also arrested Satish Chandrakar (panel operator) and two hawala operators for routing cash bribes of Rs 65 crore in the last one year. But in the course of the investigation, it was found that many event management companies provided their services to Mahadev app. In February, when Saurabh Chandrakar spent around Rs 250 crore on his wedding at Dubai, the event organisers were lined up from Delhi to Mumbai. The money trail is of significance for the ED as it claims large amounts of cash have been paid through hawala channels to event management companies for the execution of the event as well as celebrity or artist managers for ensuring the presence and performance of celebrities in the events of “Mahadev Book”.
