Mahadev Betting Case Accused Ravi Uppal Detained In Dubai, May Be Deported Soon

New Delhi: Ravi Uppal, one of the two owners of Mahadev online betting app, has been detained by Dubai police on the basis of a red notice issued by the Interpol at the behest of the ED and may soon be extradited to India.

Uppal, 43, who is wanted here for money laundering linked to alleged illegal betting, involving transactions worth Rs 6,000 crore, was detained last week, and the anti-money laundering agency is in touch with authorities in the Arab country to get him deported to India, reports said on Wednesday.

The ED had filed a money laundering chargesheet against Uppal and another promoter of the Internet-based platform, Sourabh Chandrakar, before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur in October and obtained a non-bailable warrant against them. A red notice was subsequently issued by the Interpol on the basis of ED’s request.

Sourabh, the alleged mastermind of the illegal betting syndicate, who is also in the UAE, is also likely to be arrested soon and handed over to India, the reports added.

Sourabh and Ravi, who hail from Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, founded multiple websites and apps under the brand Mahadev Book app, which provides online casino and betting platforms, activities that are illegal. The company, running operations from Dubai, allegedly used the online book betting application to enrol new users, create user IDs and launder money through a layered web of benami bank accounts. It operated by franchising “Panel/Branches” to their known associates on 70-30 per cent profit ratio.

In September, the federal agency had frozen and seized assets worth Rs 417 crore in connection with the Mahadev online betting case.  Just before the first-phase elections in Chhattisgarh in November, it claimed that forensic analysis and statement made by a ‘cash courier’ named Asim Das had led to “startling allegations” that Mahadev betting app promoters paid about Rs 508 crore to former Chhattisgarh chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel, adding that these allegations were “subject matter of investigation”.

Das, however, later submitted before the special court in Raipur that he had never delivered cash to politicians.

(With PTI inputs)