Mahadev Online Book investigation: Steps on for MOB co-promoter’s extradition

Mahadev Online Book (MOB) began its operations in 2019-20 but its reach among users saw a huge increase during the pandemic and continued to grow since then. The ED made its first arrests in the case in August this year by nabbing four persons in Chhattisgarh including an assistant sub -inspector (ASI)

Mumbai Ravi Uppal, the 43-year-old co-promoter of Mahadev Online Book (MOB) platform that is under Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s money- laundering investigation, was detained last week in Dubai. Uppal will be brought to India soon to face the law, agency sources said.

Ravi Uppal

The UAE courts will have to give permission to send Uppal to India via the extradition route; he can also be brought to India via deportation however, ED sources said. The UAE is among the 48 countries with which India has extradition treaties, sources said. Uppal, along with MOB’s fellow co-promoter Saurabh Chandrakar, had allegedly played a central role in using aides in Chhattisgarh, after transferring funds via the hawala route to them, to bribe several officials and politicians in that state to protect the MOB network from a crackdown on its activities. Chandrakar is also under the ED’s scanner and it is trying to bring him back, sources said. ED had initiated its investigation based on the cases registered by the police in Chhattisgarh, Visakhapatnam and other states.

Mahadev Online Book (MOB) began its operations in 2019-20 but its reach among users saw a huge increase during the pandemic and continued to grow since then. The ED made its first arrests in the case in August this year by nabbing four persons in Chhattisgarh including an assistant sub -inspector (ASI). The probe revealed that Uppal and Chandrakar had allegedly sent funds worth at least ₹65 crore over the last few years to the ASI for his use as well as to bribe state officials and politicians, to seek protection from police actions and smooth operation of MOB’s illegal activities, agency sources said. The MOB has several panels or branches in the country that are allegedly run like small franchises, on a 30:70 profit sharing ratio with the Dubai -based Head Office controlled by Uppal and Saurabh, wherein the latter took the major share, the sources said.

Chandrakar and Uppal are among the 14 accused named in ED’s first chargesheet submitted before a special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court in Raipur in October. The ED had earlier approached the Interpol for the issuance of a Red Corner Notice against Uppal and Chandrakar. The request was routed via Interpol’s nodal agency in India, the Central Bureau of Investigation. ED had on August 21 conducted searches at the residences of Chandrakar and Uppal in Bhilai in Chhattisgarh.

The ED on November 3 said that its team in Chhattisgarh had arrested two more accused in the case, including an alleged MOB courier Asim Das, allegedly recovering ₹5.39 lakh from his vehicle and Bhilai residence after he was intercepted at a Raipur hotel in Chhattisgarh. Das allegedly told ED that he had been tasked on a special mission by the then Dubai - based Uppal and Chandrakar to allegedly deliver cash for the election expenses of the then ruling party in Chhattisgarh, the Congress, for the November assembly elections. ED had told the Raipur court then that Das alleged that the then Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was the intented final recipient for the cash seized from his control.

According to ED, Uppal allegedly is the “main person liasioning with the bureaucrats/politicians in the state of Chhattisgarh for payment of ‘liasioning money’ for no action or subdued action against his betting app”. Uppal had allegedly obtained the passport of Vanuatu, located in south Pacific, in June 2022 that is valid for 10 years, to roam freely. HT had in September reported how during one such trip, Chandrakar and Uppal were not allowed to enter Australia and were sent back to Dubai owing to their names featuring in criminal inquiries against MOB by ED and several state agencies.