As Mahadev syndicate kingpin returns to India, a look back at the ₹6,000-crore betting racket

Indian agencies on Sunday secured the return of high-profile fugitive, Sourabh Chandrakar, from Oman in connection with the ₹6,000-crore Mahadev online betting app racket. Sourabh Chandrakar is the key accused in the case. (HT file)The extradition of Chandrakar – the mastermind in the case – was pursued aggressively both by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) since his detention in Muscat earlier in June, and his return to the country is being considered as one of the biggest successes in recent times, officials said.After Chandrakar’s return, probe agencies are now pursuing with UAE authorities the extradition of the betting app Mahadev Online Book’s co-founder, Ravi Uppal, from Dubai, the officials added.With the case again in focus amid major developments, HT takes a look at the illegal betting syndicate, which probe agencies have said runs into thousands of crores and also alleged links to politicians and bureaucrats in Chhattisgarh. What is Mahadev Online Book (MOB) betting operation?According to ED, MOB began its illegal operations in 2019-20 and continues to run across India, despite a ban on multiple platforms and apps linked to the racket. The operations allow people to place illegal bets on poker and other card-based games, cricket, badminton, tennis, football matches and even election outcomes. An officer said MOB’s user base grew sharply during the Covid pandemic in 2020 and has kept growing since. Chandrakar and Uppal, who began as small businessmen in Chhattisgarh’s Bhilai before the app took off and secured a large number of users, ran and controlled MOB. The duo fled and settled in the UAE in 2019, along with friends and family members. The promoters ran the entire operation remotely, ED said.“Everything that carried risk in India, namely benami bank accounts, offices for panels, advertising, hawala and laundering, was outsourced to panel partners in return for a share of profit. The promoters kept control of the software, the customers and the money from a head office in Dubai,” the officer cited above said on condition of anonymity.Scale of operationsED’s probe also revealed the massive scale of MOB’s operation.Officials in the probe agency said MOB sold betting panels to individuals much like franchises, in a pyramid-like structure similar to multi-level marketing. Each panel had an owner and usually four workers. A person could own multiple panels, but had to deposit ₹15 lakh as earnest money for each. “The panel operator handled all the day-to-day operations and risks, including chatting with players, collecting bets and paying out winnings,” the officer cited above said.According to ED, there are at least 3,200 betting panels across India and the UAE and around 1,000 WhatsApp operators at the main call centre in the UAE. Around 70% to 80% of the profit gained by a panel is shared with the head office and the estimated earnings per month turn out to be ₹950 crore, the agency added.The agency has estimated the proceedings linked to MOB and some linked platforms to be worth around ₹94,000 crore, out of which ₹4,000 to ₹5,000 crore has already been remitted to the promoters. According to a second ED officer, the promoters at the head office in Dubai have employed thousands of workers, mostly youngsters from Bhilai and the surrounding districts of Chhattisgarh. The probe also revealed the accused rented 20 villas in Dubai to accommodate their staff of 3,500. “Chandrakar and Uppal relied on the trust of people from their home area. Panels as far away as Dehradun and Punjab also employed youths from Chhattisgarh,” the second officer said, also seeking anonymity.“The core of this workforce was known as ‘checkers’. They carried out 12-hour shifts, monitoring the accounts of panels and identifying defaulters. They lived together in leased villas, to which groceries and necessities were delivered. Grocery bills in the names of these villas were recovered during the investigation,” the officer added. Arrests and action taken so far So far, ED has filed six charge sheets against 116 people in the case. Fourteen people have also been arrested. CBI is probing two cases related to MOB and has already filed a charge sheet. Chandrakar was extradited from Oman on Sunday. Efforts are on to bring back Uppal from Dubai.Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has also been named as an accused in CBI’s First Information Report in the MOB probe but is yet to be named in any of the charge sheets. In one of its chargesheet, ED claimed Chandrakar and Uppal paid bribes worth ₹508 crore to Baghel. The agency also searched the residence of Baghel’s advisor Vinod Verma in August 2023. Baghel has repeatedly denied all the charges against him.