ED eye on Bollywood personalities who paid ₹40 crore to attend MOB’s Dubai party

An A-list actor is part of the group; investigating agency is focusing on 8 who have endorsed the online betting platform on YouTube

Mumbai: A top male Hindi film star and a dozen other Bollywood personalities are under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), for a money trail that originates from the illegal betting platform – Mahadev Online Book (MOB). According to investigators, the stars, some of whom have also featured in YouTube videos promoting the platform, were paid ₹40 crore by it promoters, Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, to attend a party at a seven-star luxury hotel in Dubai, on September 18.

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The party has been organised, ostensibly, to celebrate the ‘grand success’ of the promoters’ online venture. There are several cheating cases registered by police in Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, and the ED probe into MOB’s activities also spans several states.

ED sources have told HT that in Mumbai their particular focus is on a dozen stars that include among others a leading comic and character artiste, a top B-rung male star, a female comic star, in addition to the top Bollywood star who have allegedly received payment from the MOB management. The agency is probing details of transactions with those who come in the crosshairs of its investigation. The association of celebrities, from Bollywood or any other field, with an online betting platform such as MOB, could adversely influence the public, especially youth, said a source.

Widening its probe, ED which had recently arrested four persons including an assistant sub-inspector (ASI), carried out searches at the premises of an event management firm in Mumbai, in connection with its investigation, on Tuesday. The online platform has several agents or franchise owners across the country, including Mumbai and parts of Maharashtra.

The four arrested in Chhattisgarh last week are: ASI Chandrabhushan Verma, Satish Chandrakar, hawala operators Anil Dammani and Sunil Dammani. Searches were also conducted at the premises of the state’s chief minister’s political advisor, Vinod Verma. ED had initiated its investigation based on the cases registered by the Chhattisgarh police, Visakhapatnam police and in other states.