Cong govt took action in Mahadev scam BJP protecting betting app its promoters Baghel

Raipur, Mar 27 (PTI) A day after the CBI carried out searches at several locations, including his premises, in connection with the alleged Mahadev betting app scam, senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel on Thursday accused the ruling BJP of giving protection to the dubious online betting platform and its promoters.
Addressing a press conference at the party office, Rajiv Bhavan, here, the former Chhattisgarh chief minister asserted it was the previous Congress government (2018-2023) headed by him which unearthed the illegality of the betting platform and took action against the app.
"The Mahadev betting app has protection of the BJP. The BJP does not want any action against the app. We had taken action against the Mahadev app during our government, hence raids were conducted against us," Baghel contended.
Available information and evidence show Saurabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, the Mahadev app promoters, are "living happily" in Dubai, he said.
The ED had published false news in newspapers of Chhattisgarh that Chandrakar and Uppal have been detained. After a few days of that news, both of them were spotted in Dubai listening to sermons of (religious guru) Pandit Pradeep Mishra, he said.
"We had lodged the first FIR against the Mahadev app in March 2022, but even today the app is being operated and its business is growing. So it is clear the app is functioning and both its promoters are roaming freely. The app and its operators have the protection of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and (Union Home Minister) Amit Shah," the Congress leader alleged.
The app also has protection of the BJP government in Chhattisgarh as no notable action has been taken against the betting platform by the police after the Congress lost power in late 2023, he maintained.
"One by one, at least 74 cases were registered in the Mahadev app issue during the previous Congress government, more than 200 people were arrested, more than 2,000 bank accounts were seized and hundreds of gadgets confiscated.
"In December 2022, we amended the Gambling Act in the assembly to ban online betting. We (then Congress government) got the Mahadev app removed from Google Play Store. On the basis of the case lodged by us, an FIR was registered in Andhra Pradesh, and the ED took over the probe," said Baghel said.
The former CM said when he was in office, he had written a letter to PM Modi seeking a ban on all illegal online betting and gambling platforms.
"We started the first and the biggest action on the Mahadev app running across the country. We requested the Central government to take action in this matter. But the irony is that ED targeted us as soon as it took up the case," he claimed.
Baghel alleged he was being targeted by probe agencies.
"When the ED did not find any basis to take action against me, my name was included in the FIR lodged by the state's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in connection with the app. Later, the EOW handed over the case to the CBI," he said.
There are reports that Mahadev app promoters Chandrakar and Uppal have taken citizenship of Vanuatu, a South Pacific Ocean nation with which India does not have an extradition treaty, averred Baghel.
Recently, when former IPL chief Lalit Modi, who faces a criminal case in India, tried to take citizenship of Vanuatu, considered a tax haven, the government immediately intervened and objected to it. So why did the Indian government not intervene in the case of Chandrakar and Uppal? he asked.
Later in the day, Congress workers burnt effigies of the BJP-led Centre and the saffron party government in Chhattisgarh at all district headquarters of the state in protest against the CBI raids at premises of Baghel, Congress MLA Devendra Yadav and some other party leaders on Wednesday, a party functionary said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)