Rs 91 Crore In Assets Seized By Probe Agency ED In Mahadev Betting App Case

The Enforcement Directorate's (ED) Raipur zonal office has issued a provisional attachment order of Rs 91.82 crore in connection with alleged illegal betting operations linked to Mahadev Online Book and Skyexchange.com.

The ED took action under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002 by attaching movable and immovable assets.

The ED said it has attached bank balances of Rs 74.28 crore held in the names of Perfect Plan Investment LLC and Exim General Trading - GZCO.

These entities are linked to Sourabh Chandrakar, Anil Kumar Agarwal and Vikas Chhaparia, and were allegedly used to conceal and project proceeds of crime as legitimate investments, the ED said.

In addition, properties worth Rs 17.5 crore belonging to Gagan Gupta, a close associate of Skyexchange.com owner Hari Shankar Tibrewal, have been attached. The assets include high-value real estate and liquid holdings reportedly acquired using cash generated from illegal betting activities.

The ED's investigation has revealed that illegal betting platforms such as Mahadev Online Book and Skyexchange.com generated massive proceeds of crime, which were laundered through a complex network of benami bank accounts.

Investigators allege that the Mahadev Online Book application was designed to facilitate multiple illegal betting websites and apps by onboarding customers and managing financial operations.

The platforms were allegedly rigged to ensure customer losses, with thousands of crores collected and distributed through predetermined profit-sharing arrangements. The probe has also found that fabricated or stolen KYC documents were used to open bank accounts, while the transactions remained unaccounted for and outside the tax net.

Further investigation disclosed that the illicit proceeds were siphoned out of India through hawala channels, trade-based money laundering, and cryptoassets, before being routed back into the country and invested in the Indian stock market in the name of foreign portfolio investments (FPIs).

The ED unearthed a "cashback" scheme in which FPI entities invested in listed Indian companies, and in return, promoters allegedly paid 30 to 40 per cent of the investment amount back in cash.

Gagan Gupta has been identified as a beneficiary of at least Rs 98 crore from such transactions, involving companies including Salasar Techno Engineering Ltd and Tiger Logistics Ltd.

So far, the ED has carried out searches at more than 175 premises in the case. Cumulatively, movable and immovable assets worth around Rs 2,600 crore have been seized, frozen or attached. The agency has arrested 13 people and named 74 entities as accused in five prosecution complaints filed to date.