New Delhi: Sourabh Chandrakar, alleged kingpin of the Mahadev Online Book betting syndicate, is in CBI custody after being brought back from Oman, where he was arrested by the Royal Oman Police on 8 July over an alleged forged Indonesian passport. The arrest followed an Interpol red notice.
A Delhi court granted the CBI a two-day transit remand, after which he was taken to Chhattisgarh. He had left India on 16 February 2022.
Ahead of him is the Enforcement Directorate's money-laundering case. A prosecution complaint filed on 20 October 2023 is pending before the special PMLA court in Raipur, and includes the roughly Rs 200 crore cash-funded wedding at Ras Al Khaimah in February 2023.
The agency has issued 11 provisional attachment orders, seven of which have been confirmed. Of about Rs 3,500 crore attached, roughly Rs 1,800 crore is abroad, including 22 properties in Dubai, and Rs 1,700 crore is in India. The ED estimates proceeds of crime from Mahadev and sister platforms Skyexchange and Lotus365 at Rs 88,000-94,000 crore, of which Rs 4,000-5,000 crore was allegedly remitted to the promoters in the UAE.
The ED's application under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, filed in November 2024, seeks to confiscate his property, including benami holdings. The Raipur court has listed it for December 5.
The allegations reach well beyond the promoter. The CBI's FIR names 21 people, including Chandrakar, Ravi Uppal and unnamed officials and policemen. Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel is accused number six. In March 2025, CBI searches at his residence lasted nearly 15 hours and the agency seized three phones.
According to the ED's record, Chandrakar said in an August 2023 statement that co-promoter Ravi Uppal paid about Rs 81 crore to assistant sub-inspector Chandrabhushan Verma, including Rs 20 crore for the chief minister's house. Another accused wrote to the ED on 2 November 2023 claiming about Rs 508 crore had been paid to Baghel. The agency also seized Rs 5.39 crore from a courier, Asim Das, that day; Das later retracted his claim.
Baghel has denied any wrongdoing and called the probes politically motivated. None of these allegations has been established in court.