New Delhi: Barely anyone knew Sourabh Chandrakar’s name in Chhattisgarh’s Bhilai a few years ago. Before the pandemic, he was working at his family’s juice shop, making Rs 15,000 a month.
In February 2023, he got married in Ras Al-Khaimah, UAE. He splurged Rs 200 crore, most of it “in cash”, on the wedding festivities, hiring private jets to ferry family members and relatives from Bhilai. While he was already on the radar of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), it was the wedding photos splashed across social media that really caught the attention of agency sleuths.
Now Chandrakar is listed as accused number 1 in the ED’s first chargesheet in the Mahadev Online Book illegal betting case, filed October 2023 before a special PMLA court in Raipur. On Sunday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) extradited him from Oman, where he was detained in June on a long-standing Interpol Red Corner Notice.
“He is wanted in two CBI cases in which chargesheets have already been filed and an ED case in which a prosecution complaint has been filed,” according to a CBI spokesperson.
Through its probe which began in October 2022, the ED has estimated that Mahadev had at least 1,200 panels (branches or units formed to divide operations among hundreds of associates in order to maximise money-making), each generating Rs 30 lakh cash per month—making overall Rs 450 crore monthly from the illegal betting operations.
The Enforcement Directorate has pegged the proceeds of crime generated by Mahadev Online Book at Rs 75,000 crore.
ThePrint looks at how Sourabh Chandrakar and another key accused Ravi Uppal met, how they remotely ran their multi-crore online betting empire using a number of Chhattisgarh locals, raking in 70 percent of the betting profits.
A betting empire remote-controlled from Dubai
It was when he was running a juice shop in Bhilai that Sourabh Chandrakar met Ravi Uppal. Uppal, who comes from a prominent business family, was allegedly already involved in local betting. By 2020, Chandrakar had started his betting business, offering operatives Rs 10,000 per month to increase subscribers to his Telegram channel ‘Mahadev Book’.
In its probe, the ED found that the Mahadev app promoters allowed users to bet on outcomes of games such as poker, cricket, badminton, tennis, football, as well as on virtual sports and election results. Additionally, the promoters created other platforms such as Reddy Anna and Fair Play, and were involved with various other online betting sites that operate on similar lines. Gambling and betting are illegal in India including under the Public Gambling Act, 1867.
According to the ED, Chandrakar and other Mahadev promoters had created a pool of mule accounts, opened with KYC documents fraudulently obtained from the public, to pool the proceeds from illegal betting operations. Chandrakar and Uppal were allegedly leading the operations from Dubai with the help of their relatives and associates.
The agency claims Chandrakar formed a pyramidal network in which betting panels are franchised for a large security deposit, and the promoters get 70 percent of the profits—a model that allowed them to remotely control the reins while the Chhattisgarh locals managed the panels on ground. They managed to lure a large number of people to betting using through lavish parties, hiring celebrities for endorsements, sponsoring shows, the ED has allegedly found.
“Investigations revealed that at least 1,207 panels of Mahadev Book are operative as on date. The actual number is suspected to be more than 2,000,” the ED has stated in its prosecution complaint (the ED-equivalent of an FIR).
The central agency has however conceded its inability to gauge the exact scale of the illegal betting empire of Mahadev Online Book and its promoters, including Chandrakar, citing that this was why the fugitive’s extradition was crucial for it as well as the CBI.
The lavish wedding that caught ED’s eye
The crackdown against Mahadev Online Book began way back in March 2022 when the Chhattisgarh Police lodged a cheating case against local panel operators.
However, Chandrakar had left India a month earlier, according to the ED, which entered the picture by initiating a money-laundering probe in October 2022, taking cognisance of seven police FIRs filed in Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.
As the agency’s probe gathered steam, more and more FIRs were registered in other parts of the country, based on complaints from people who lost money in the application.
However, it was Chandrakar’s big fat wedding that put the real spotlight on the Mahadev betting app. As the wedding, exhaustive preparations, and guest list drew scrutiny, the ED conducted raids on travel agents and operatives who carried out groundwork in India. The agency reached out to a Mumbai-based event management company, R-l Events, which led it to Chandrakar’s wedding guest list.
Chandrakar, the ED found, spent as much as Rs 37 crore only on air tickets, hotels and visas of guests, as well as celebrities hired to perform at the wedding, as well as private jets hired for them.
A whopping Rs 112 crore was spent by Chandrakar on the wedding planners, dancers, and decorators alone, who were ferried from Mumbai, and the entire payment was allegedly made through hawala channels, the ED found in its probe.
As news of the ED’s investigation reached Chandrakar’s associates back home, the agency got a Red Corner Notice issued in November 2023. However, Chandrakar had already acquired a Vanuatu passport—which provides visa-free or visa-upon-arrival travel—in May 2022. He also attempted to secure Australian citizenship but failed.
“The accused, Sourabh Chandrakar hails from a small city of Bhilai in Chhattisgarh where he ran a juice shop till 2017. The accused has since then remarkably risen to prominence in the world of illegal gambling. He is co-owner of the illegal gambling app/website, Mahadev Book. Sourabh Chandrakar along with Ravi Uppal has established a betting empire and is indulged in rampant money laundering,” the ED stated in its first prosecution complaint in the Mahadeb betting case in 2023.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)