According to an Enforcement Directorate dossier that is currently included in the CBI FIR, former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was purportedly one of the beneficiaries of the Mahadev Betting scam, officials claimed.
According to sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), and the Chhattisgarh Gambling (Prohibition) Act of the Indian Penal Code, the CBI has re-registered the FIR of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Chhattisgarh police as its own case. In the FIR, Mr. Baghel is identified as culprit number 6 out of 19.
Baghel has refuted the accusations, calling the CBI action politically motivated. The CBI searched Baghel’s home on March 26 after filing a formal complaint on December 18 of last year. On Tuesday, the FIR was released to the public. The CBI re-registers the state police’s FIR as its own case, per the protocol in instances that are referred to it by a state government.
Starting with the FIR, the central agency investigates the case and submits its findings to a special court in the form of a final report, which may or may not include the FIR’s claims. The FIR of the Chhattisgarh EOW, referred to the CBI by the state government, was filed on the basis of an Enforcement Directorate report to state police.
The ED report, which was included in the EOW FIR and is currently being investigated by the CBI, said that Sourabh Chandrakar, Ravi Uppal, Shubham Soni, and Anil Kumar Agrawal, all of whom were headquartered in Dubai, were the primary proprietors of “Mahadev Online Book,” an online “betting empire” that operated “massive call centers.”
According to the article, the company’s promoters and affiliates got Vanuatuan citizenship “to escape the clutches of law.” It claimed that Mahadev Online Book and its affiliated companies were making Rs 450 crore in betting revenue per month.
In order to conceal the money trail from the authorities, the ED has claimed that promoters and accomplices were engaging in cryptocurrency transactions. Regarding Baghel’s purported involvement, the ED investigation stated that the promoters of Mahadev Online Book had designated him as a “beneficiary” of the betting proceeds. “It has also been revealed by Chandrabhushan Verma (a police personnel who was the main link between Dubai-based promoters and Chhattisgarh-based powers that be) that his (Baghel’s) OSD and political advisor were being paid proceeds out of Mahadev Online Book regularly,” the report, now part of the CBI FIR, alleged.
According to the ED, it had confiscated Rs 5.39 crore in cash from a man named Asim Das in 2023. The federal agency said it was able to obtain from the mobile phone of Asim Das a voice note, which was claimed to have been shared by Shubham Soni.
The recording, it alleged, made it “clearly evident” that the seized account was meant for one “Mr Baghel,” who was identified by Asim Das as “Ex-CM of state Mr Bhupesh Baghel” in a statement he gave on November 3, 2023. “As per the voice note, it was also gathered that Shubham Soni was claiming that he had also made such payments prior to this incident,” the report said.
Das was detained by the ED in 2023 from a Raipur hotel shortly before Chhattisgarh’s first round of Assembly elections. Baghel had claimed that the previous Congress government had taken harsh measures against the Mahadev betting app following the searches on March 26.
“During (previous) Congress government in the state, around 74 FIRs were lodged in connection with Mahadev betting app and more than 200 people were arrested and over 2,000 bank accounts related to it were frozen. We took action against the app but they (government agencies) claim we protected the app and took money. How will the one who takes action accept the protection money? Protection money is taken where there is a double engine (government) and betting is still functional,” he claimed.
Baghel further asserted that Chandrakar and Uppal had been arrested from overseas locations after the then-Congress administration asked the Center to issue a lookout circular against them. “But (religious guru) Pradeep Mishra, who praises BJP, visited Dubai by becoming a guest of Saurabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal. If CBI officials have courage, they should ask Pardeep Mishra whose programme is currently underway in the home district of Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai in Jashpur, about his relations with Saurabh Chandrakar and Pradeep Mishra,” Baghel had said.
In a statement issued following the searches, the CBI stated, “Investigations have revealed that the promoters allegedly paid substantial amounts as ‘protection money’ to public servants to ensure the smooth and uninterrupted functioning of their illegal betting network.”
