New Delhi: India’s efforts to extradite Mahadev Online Book’s fugitive promoter Sourabh Chandrakar, accused of running a gambling syndicate worth more than Rs 6,000 crore through the betting app, from Oman may be delayed because of a fake passport case, ThePrint has learnt.
Sources said Chandrakar was detained by the Royal Oman Police early last month for obtaining and possessing a fake Indonesian passport.
The Enforcement Directorate has sent the case files to the Ministry of Home Affairs to formally request his extradition, but the process hinges on the outcome of the passport case. Chandrakar has been out of India since 2019 and has been wanted in the illegal betting case since 2023.
Updated case files have been sent to the MHA for further processing and placing a formal extradition request, a source familiar with the matter told ThePrint.
“However, reports of him facing a case in Oman for a fake passport may complicate matters and delay it. We are yet to get official information from the authorities on the specific details,” the official further said.
Prosecuting a case involving a fake passport may complicate matters, officials concede.
Under Omani law, a person facing a case in the country cannot be extradited without facing a trial and sentencing, if applicable, in the Oman case. India and Oman signed an extradition treaty in December 2004, which came into force in September 2005.
Chandrakar was just a juice shop owner in Chhattisgarh’s Bhilai district until 2017. He made headlines in 2023 when the ED uncovered financial dealings and lavish spending during his wedding in Dubai.
According to the estimates submitted in its prosecution complaint, Chandrakar spent a whopping Rs 200 crore in cash at his wedding in Ras Al Khaimah, the United Arab Emirates.
Around Rs 37 crore was spent solely on ticket booking and ferrying celebrities, including those from India who were invited as guests or to perform at the wedding.
The federal probe agency had opened a money laundering case based on dozens of FIRs registered by the police in Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and other states for illegal gambling.
In its probe, the ED found that Chandarkar, in partnership with Ravi Uppal, who also belongs to Bhilai, set up Mahadev Online Book during the Covid-19 pandemic and created a web of online gambling and pyramid schemes to siphon off funds.
Money “duped” from people who onboarded the platform in the name of games was diverted to Uppal and Chandrakar through hawala channels.
Sources had earlier told ThePrint that Mahadev Online Book, a mobile app, provides a platform for alleged illegal betting on live games such as poker, other card games and chance games, besides virtual cricket, badminton, tennis and football, among others. It also allows visitors to play card games like teen patti, poker and ‘Dragon Tiger’, among others.
As revelations emerged about the alleged involvement of senior government officials and politicians in the mushrooming of the platform, the Chhattisgarh Economic Offences Wing registered a case before it was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The ED has a Red Corner Notice (RCN) issued against him by Interpol in November 2023. About a year later, he was detained by UAE authorities, and India sent an extradition request, but it remains unexecuted.
Earlier this year, the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files (CCF) rejected Chandrakar’s plea to have the Red Notice issued against him removed. He has alleged that the agencies’ actions against him were politically motivated.
Meanwhile, Chandrakar moved to Oman, where he was detained by Omani authorities in early June, prompting Indian agencies to request his extradition.
Chandrakar had also acquired a passport for Vanutau and travelled to Australia, where he was detained by the Immigration authorities in 2023.
The ED has also found that he attempted to secure Australian citizenship based on a Vanuatu passport, which did not materialise. This now form parts of the ED’s prosecution complaint.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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