Sourabh Chandrakar returned to India on Sunday after being extradited from Oman, marking a major development in the ₹6,000-crore Mahadev Online Book betting scandal. The alleged kingpin of one of India's largest illegal betting syndicates was brought back by the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate, which have been pursuing his return since his detention in Muscat earlier in June.
Chandrakar's return is being considered one of the biggest successes in recent times for Indian probe agencies. With his arrival, officials are now intensifying efforts to extradite co-founder Ravi Uppal from Dubai.
According to the Enforcement Directorate, the Mahadev Online Book app began illegal operations in 2019-20 and continues to run across India despite bans 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.
The ED's probe revealed the massive scale of the operation. Officials 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 agency said 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 ED 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.
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. 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.
Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has also been named as an accused in the CBI's First Information Report in the MOB probe. The ED claimed in one of its charge sheets that Chandrakar and Uppal paid bribes worth ₹508 crore to Baghel. The former chief minister has repeatedly denied all the charges against him.
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.
With Chandrakar now in Indian custody, agencies are stepping up the push to extradite Uppal from Dubai. A Delhi court on Monday reserved its order on the CBI's plea seeking two-day transit remand of Chandrakar to produce him before a special court in Raipur, Chhattisgarh.
