New Delhi: Shraddha Kapoor is among the latest Bollywood personalities to have been asked to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) today in a case involving a gaming app, Mahadev that allegedly provides a platform for illegal betting. It is not known if Shraddha Kapoor will appear before them today.
Ranbir Kapoor, who was also summoned, has requested two weeks’ time to appear before the central agency that probes financial frauds.
Comedian-actor Kapil Sharma and actors Huma Qureshi and Hina Khan are the others who have been summoned in the Mahadev app case on different dates. They too have sought two weeks’ time to appear before the agency, according to reports.
The celebrities are not named as accused in the case, but will be questioned over what they know about the mode and flow of payment allegedly done to them by the app’s promoters. Ranbir Kapoor has done several ads promoting the Mahdev app and received a large amount of money that was from the proceeds of a crime, the agency has claimed.
What is Mahadev app?
It is an umbrella syndicate that provides online platforms to illegal betting websites to enroll new users, create user IDs, and laundering of money through a layered web of Benami bank accounts, the ED has alleged.
The latest online gaming rules prohibit betting. The company’s promoters, Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, are from Bhilai in Chhattisgarh and run their operations from Dubai. They operate four-five such apps and made around Rs 200 crore per day, the probe agency claimed.
They do large expenditures in cash in India for advertising of betting websites to attract new users and franchise seekers, the ED said. Last month, assets worth Rs 417 crore were seized during raids at 39 locations in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bhopal in connection with the Mahadev betting app. Chandrakar’s Rs 200-crore February wedding in the UAE, entirely paid in cash, had brought the Mahadev app under the ED scanner.
