Mumbai Police has registered FIR against 32 people for fraud of Rs 15K cr

The Mumbai Police have registered an FIR against 32 people, including the “promoter” of the Mahadev’ betting app, for allegedly committing a fraud of nearly Rs 15,000 crore, an official said on Wednesday.

According to the Matunga police official, the first information report (FIR) was registered on Tuesday against “app promoter Saurabh Chandrakar”, and key accused Ravi Uppal and Shubham Soni and others for committing the fraud since 2019 until now.

The case was registered on the direction of the 30th Kurla court under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 120-B (conspiracy), IT Act (for cyber terrorism) and the Gambling Act, the official said.

As per the FIR, the accused have defrauded people of nearly Rs 15,000 crore.

The Enforcement Directorate last week claimed that a forensic analysis and a statement made by a ‘cash courier’ had led to “startling allegations” that Mahadev betting app promoters have paid about Rs 508 crore to the Chhattisgarh chief minister so far, and that “these are subject matter of investigation”.

Later, the BJP released a video of Shubham Soni saying he was the owner of the app and had the “proof” of paying Rs 508 crore so far to Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel.

On November 5, the Centre issued blocking orders against 22 illegal betting platforms, including the Mahadev app and Reddyannaprestopro’, on ED’s request, an official statement said.

The action of banning the 22 illegal betting platforms follows investigations conducted by the ED against an illegal betting app syndicate and subsequent raids in connection with the Mahadev app in Chhattisgarh.

According to the ED, Mahadev Book provides online platforms for illegal betting in different live games such as poker and other card games, chance games, cricket, badminton, tennis, football and others; even providing an avenue to bet on different elections in India.

“Mahadev Online Book Betting App is an umbrella syndicate arranging online platforms for enabling illegal betting websites to enrol new users, create User IDs and launder money through a layered web of benami bank accounts.

ED has recently conducted widespread searches against the money laundering networks linked with the Mahadev App in cities like Kolkata, Bhopal, Mumbai etc. and retrieved large amounts of incriminating evidence and has frozen/seized proceeds of crime worth Rs 417 crore” as per an earlier statement from ED.