Mahadev betting app scam: Kingpin spent Rs 200 crore on UAE wedding, hired Bollywood celebs, private jets
One of the two promoters of Mahadev gambling app, Sourabh Chandrakar, spent Rs 200 crore on his lavish wedding in the UAE, where several Bollywood celebrities were hired to perform. The Enforcement Directorate is investigating the money laundering operations of the Mahadev Online Book app, which may be to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore, Indian Express reported.
In a press release, the B(ED) has said that Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal “created an empire for themselves in the UAE” where they openly flaunted their wealth.
Chandrakar has been accused of spending Rs 200 crore on his own wedding which took place in February 2023 in Ras Al Khaimah in UAE. He hired private jets to ferry his family members and friends from Nagpur and paid Rs 42 crore for hotels alone. All payments were made in cash.
“Celebrities were hired to perform in the marriage. Wedding planners, dancers, decorators etc were hired from Mumbai and hawala channels were used to make payments in cash,” the ED has said.
India Today has reported that Bollywood celebrities like Tiger Shroff and Sunny Leone were present at the wedding, along with Vishal Dadlani, Atif Aslam, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Kriti Kharbanda, Bharti Singh and Krushna Abhishek.
Besides this, Chandrakar gave Rs 112 crore, allegedly via hawala, to an events management company.
The ED has frozen and seized assets worth Rs 417 crore in connection with the Mahadev online betting case. The company, which was 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, officials said.
The company promoters hail from Bhilai in Chhattisgarh and the Mahadev Online Book Betting application is an umbrella syndicate arranging online platforms for enabling illegal betting websites.
