Ranbir, Shraddha and more: Why Bollywood is in trouble over Mahadev betting app case

-

Ranbir Kapoor, Huma Qureshi, Kapil Sharma, Hina Khan, Shraddha Kapoor. This isn’t the cast of a new ensemble Bollywood film, but the names of those celebs who have summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection to the Mahadev betting app case.

Ranbir has been summoned to the ED office in Raipur today (6 October). Even Shraddha is expected to appear before the ED on Friday. It was reported earlier that the Kapoor scion had asked for two weeks’ time before appearing in front of the agency. However, there’s no clarification if the authorities had granted his request.

As the case widens, and more celebs come under the scanner – the officials are looking at summoning even more of B-Town folk – we take a closer look at what is the Mahadev betting app case and how celebs are connected to it.

The Mahadev betting app scandal

Before we dive into Bollywood’s link to the case, let’s understand what the matter is all about.

According to investigating officials, the gaming app, called the Mahadev Online Book, provides a platform for illegal betting games like poker, card games, chance games, and sports like cricket, tennis and football. People can also bet on elections in the country. It also allows people to play games like Teen Patti, poker, “Dragon Tiger” and virtual cricket.

The Mahadev Online Book provides a platform for illegal betting games like poker, card games, chance games, and sports like cricket, tennis and football.

Those who run the app, called panel owners, make a profit of Rs 200 crore, reports NDTV.

They advertise the contact number of Mahadev Online Book on websites, luring people to play games to earn profit. Once people click on the ad, they are requested to contact specific WhatsApp numbers. “Once a user contacts this number, he will be provided two separate numbers. One is for depositing money and collecting points in user IDs used to make bets. The second is for contacting the website to encash accumulated points in designated IDs,” an ED source told The Print.

These IDs are created on different platforms such as laser247.com, laserbook247.com, betbhai.com, betbook247.com, tigerexch247.com, and cricketbet9.com “depending on the need and preference of the bettors”.

The panel owners collect money, create user IDs, distribute the ID credentials, and distribute any money earned.

The players have to deposit money in benami accounts, which are shared online after which they are assigned panels by the head office, which is based out of Dubai. The payouts are also done from benami accounts, which are opened fraudulently.

All the games are reportedly fixed so that the owners don’t make losses. The officials in their investigation found that while users made initial profits, they began losing huge sums in the long run.

And who’s behind this entire master plan? ED officials have said that Sourabh Chandrakar, 28, and Ravi Uppal, 43, are the main promoters of Mahadev Online Book. Hailing from Chhattisgarh’s Bhilai, the duo is based in Dubai from where they allegedly run operations of the platform.

Sourabh Chandrakar’s wedding in February earned the ED’s attention. The kingpin of the betting app reportedly spent Rs 200 crore on his nuptials, of which Rs 100 crore was spent in cash. Image Courtesy: @garg_trupti/X

It has been reported that it was Chandrakar’s Rs 200-crore wedding in February that attracted the ED’s attention. The promoter of the betting app tied the knot in Ras Al-Khaimah and spared no expense for the event.

He hired a Mumbai-based events company to organise the extravagant affair and even flew down members of his family in private jets.

Moreover, celebrities such as Tiger Shroff, Sunny Leone, Bhagyashree, Vishal Dadlani, Atif Aslam, Neha Kakkar, Ali Asgar, Bharti Singh, Bhagyashree, Pulkit Samrat, Elli Avram, and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan were called for the event.

The ED says that of the Rs 200 crore that was spent, Rs 100 crore went to the Malad-based company and it was all paid in cash, which is how they were alerted to it.

The ED in its 15 September statement had said: “In February 2023, Sourabh Chandrakar got married at RAK, UAE, and for this marriage ceremony, the promoters of Mahadev app spent around Rs 200 crore in cash.”

“Private jets were hired to ferry family members from Nagpur to UAE. Celebrities were hired to perform in the marriage. Wedding planners, dancers, decorators etc were hired from Mumbai and hawala channels were used to make payments in cash,” the agency said.

Actor Ranbir Kapoor has been summoned by the ED in the Mahadev betting app case. He reportedly endorsed the app.

B-Town’s link to Mahadev app

The question many are now asking is how are B-Town celebs are connected to the app?

According to officials, Ranbir Kapoor has been asked to provide information on the knowledge he had on the source of the money he was being provided with to promote the app.

ED officials have said that Ranbir endorsed the betting platform and was paid for it with the money reportedly coming from the collections through the scam.

According to reports, the Brahmastra actor is said to be among the highest-paid celebs who were paid by the app promoters. Even social media ads and advertisements for the Mahadev app have featured him.

On Thursday (6 October), the officials widened their probe and summoned Kapil Sharma and Huma Qureshi and Hina Khan on different dates to provide information about the mode and flow of payment allegedly done to them by the promoters of the app.

Actors Huma Qureshi, Kapil Sharma and Hina Khan have also been summoned by the ED in the case. They have been called on different days to provide information about their involvement in the app. Image Courtesy: @iamhumaq/Instagram

Shraddha Kapoor, Ranbir’s co-actor in Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar, has also been asked to appear before the ED officials after she allegedly promoted the app. Officials believe that she too was paid through benami and hawala channels.

Besides these celebs, the ED has their eyes on another 14 of them as well as 100 other influencers who attended Chandrakar’s wedding in February.

The ED has clarified that the celebs are not being summoned in the case as accused but to understand how the app functioned and earned crores of rupees and funnelled money through illegal means.

The authorities have conducted searches at 39 locations so far across Raipur, Bhopal, Mumbai, and Kolkata and seized illegal assets worth Rs 417 crore.

It is left to be seen what the celebrities reveal about the app to the officials, but what has become clear through the probe so far is that the scale of the operation is across India. As one ED source told The Print, “The scale is huge. We are still not able to identify how much money has been made and laundered till now.”

With inputs from agencies



from Firstpost India Latest News https://ift.tt/Hq9LUu2
FP Explainers

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Both COVID-19 vaccine doses needed for good protection against B16172 variant

-
It’s been a concerning few weeks in the UK, with the B16172 variant first taking hold and then spreading to become dominant. This more infectious form of the virus, initially identified in India, is what we’re now going to have to live with – unless it is out-competed by another variant in the future. Worryingly, experts had predicted that B16172 might be able to escape some of the effects of vaccines, which if true would threaten to derail the UK’s plans to finish lifting restrictions from the end of June. However, Public Health England (PHE) has looked at the ability of various variants to evade immunity and says that the UK’s vaccines remain effective against the variants circulating, including B16172. On the surface, this looks like good news. But delve a bit deeper, and things get more complicated, says Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia. PHE’s research found a little drop-off in protection against B16172 among people who were fully vaccinated.
Read more

New coronavirus variant emerge in India: How should our COVID response change?

-
Image
After genome sequencing of over 10,000 COVID-19 cases in India, researchers have discovered a new variant with two new mutations which may be better at evading the immune system. In 15-20 percent of samples from the Indian state of Maharashtra (the state accounting for 62 percent of cases in the country) a new, double mutation in key areas of the virus has been detected. These are now known as the E484Q and L452R mutations. What makes the variant different? Both these mutations are concerning because they are located in a key portion of the virus – the spike protein – that it uses to penetrate human cells. Spike proteins attach via a “receptor binding domain”, meaning the virus can attach to receptors in our cells. These new mutations include changes to the spike protein that make it a “better fit” for human cells. This means the virus can gain entry more easily and multiply faster. Given what we have seen with other similar mutations , it might also make it harder for our immu
Read more

Aditya L1 Mission: Spacecraft is nearing its final phase, says ISRO chief

-
Aditya L1 spacecraft is nearing its final phase, and manoeuvres to enter the L1 point are expected to be completed by January 7, 2024, according to ISRO Chairman S Somanath. “Aditya is on the way. I think it has reached almost its final phase,” the ISRO chief told PTI on the sidelines of an event organised at VSSC to commemorate the 60th year of the First Sounding Rocket Launch. Aditya L1, India’s first space-based mission to study the Sun, was successfully launched on September 2 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota. The spacecraft, after travelling about 1.5 million km from Earth over 125 days, is expected to be placed in a Halo orbit around the Lagrangian point L1, considered closest to the Sun. He said that the last preparations for the spacecraft’s entry into the L1 point are currently underway incrementally.”Possibly by January 7th, the final manoeuvres will be done for entering into the L1 point,” Somanath added. Among other tasks, it will capture and tr
Read more