Mahadev app’s Chandrakar held in Oman; India to seek extradition

Sourabh Chandrakar, the mastermind of the ₹6,000 crore Mahadev online gambling racket, has been detained in Oman, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, adding that India is in the process of sending an extradition request to Muscat

Published on: Jul 9, 2026, 08:56:08 IST

By Neeraj Chauhan, New Delhi

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Sourabh Chandrakar, the mastermind of the ₹6,000 crore Mahadev online gambling racket, has been detained in Oman, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, adding that India is in the process of sending an extradition request to Muscat.

While Indian law enforcement agencies are trying to ascertain the details of his capture through formal channels, officials who didn’t want to be named said Chandrakar, whose last location was in the UAE, was taken into custody by Royal Oman police based on an Interpol notice issued at the request of Indian agencies.

Initial information suggests that Chandrakar was travelling to Oman on a fake passport obtained from a Southeast Asian country.

India and Oman have an extradition treaty and officials in New Delhi are hopeful that Chandrakar, wanted since 2019, may finally be repatriated to India.

Extradition requests to the UAE did not fructify even though he was once detained in Dubai in 2024; he was subsequently released.

Chandrakar, who is believed to be in his early 30s, set-up the Mahadev betting empire along with co-founder Ravi Uppal. The duo fled to Dubai sometime in 2019 and their network still allegedly runs betting apps and websites from there.

Based on an Interpol red notice, UAE authorities briefly detained Sourabh Chandrakar in October 2024 and kept him under house arrest. The same month, India sent an extradition request for him which was not executed, “thereby making it infructuous”.

As exclusively reported by HT in November 4, 2025, Ravi Uppal went missing from the UAE after authorities in the country decided to close extradition proceedings against him.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Chhattisgarh police are also investigating Mahadev founders along with several public servants in Raipur. The illegal betting operations, still running across India despite the government banning multiple platforms and apps linked to Mahadev, allows people to place illegal bets on poker and other card games, games of chance , cricket, badminton, tennis and football matches, even election outcomes.

ED has claimed in one of its charge sheets in the case that the “betting empire” was operating at least 3,200 (betting) panels in different cities, generating around ₹240 crore per day.

The duo, Chandrakar and Uppal , rented 20 villas in Dubai to accommodate their staff of 3,500. Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel is also named as accused in the investigation. He has consistently denied his involvement.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Chauhan
Neeraj Chauhan is a senior journalist with Hindustan Times and an investigative reporter specialising in national security, terrorism, organised crime, narcotics, corruption, financial crime and complex investigations. With over 21 years of experience across Hindustan Times, The Times of India, The Indian Express and The Pioneer, he has built deep expertise in India’s internal security and law-enforcement landscape. Neeraj has extensively covered India’s principal investigative, intelligence and security agencies, including the NIA, CBI, ED, IB, R&AW, MHA and other central security forces. His work has included deeply reported investigations into terrorism, terror financing, cross-border crime, narcotics trafficking, cybercrime, financial fraud and political and corporate corruption. He has reported on some of the most significant terror attacks and security developments in India over the past two decades, including the Delhi serial blasts, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the 2019 Pulwama terror attack and the recent Pahalgam attack. His reporting has also chronicled the rise and decline of the Indian Mujahideen, the activities and subsequent crackdown on the Popular Front of India (PFI), Islamist extremist networks, the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir, insurgencies in the Northeast and Maoist violence. Some of Neeraj’s major breaking stories are in Aryan Khan drug case, Sushant Singh Rajput suicide, interception of a 3,000-kg Afghan heroin consignment worth about ₹21,000 crore at Mundra port, Sri Lanka easter bombings, Aarushi-Hemraj murders in Noida, 2G scam, coal block allocation scam, AgustWestland VVIP chopper deal and major bank frauds and extradition cases involving Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya. His reporting is marked by an ability to cultivate sources, analyse confidential and complex documents, and follow investigations over several years—from the initial breakthrough to chargesheets, trials and international legal proceedings. He specialises in making complicated security and investigative developments accessible while examining their wider implications for governance and public policy. A Chevening South Asia Journalism Programme Fellow at the University of Westminster, Neeraj also spent time at the Financial Times as part of the fellowship. He was also a Robert Bosch Media Ambassadors India-Germany Fellow, studying at the University of Tübingen and working with Der Tagesspiegel in Berlin. He has previously taught investigative journalism and crime reporting as a guest faculty member at the Times School of Journalism. Over more than two decades, Neeraj has established himself as an authoritative voice on India’s national security and investigative landscape, with his reporting closely followed by officials, investigators, lawyers, policymakers and readers seeking insight into some of the country’s most complex and consequential developments.Read More

Extradition Request

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