Indian authorities are seeking to extradite Saurabh Chandrakar, the main accused in the Rs 6,000-crore Mahadev Online Book betting app case, after he was recently traced to Oman. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had attached assets worth Rs 1,700 crore in connection with the case against him in March this year, including luxury villas and high-end apartments in Dubai’s premium locations. Chandrakar’s lavish Rs 200-crore wedding in Dubai in 2023, attended by Bollywood celebrities, had made news in India.
Since then, Indian authorities have been trying to apprehend him. ED counsel Saurabh Kumar Pandey told The Indian Express that a warrant of arrest and externment papers for Chandrakar were issued by a special court in Raipur last month, and the agency has sent the papers to the Consulate General of India to get him extradited from Oman. Apart from Chandrakar, other major names associated with the case who are based abroad include Vikas Chapria, Ravi Shankar Dibrewal, Amit Agrawal, and Ravi Uppal.
The ED is trying to get Chandrakar, Uppal, and Chapria declared as fugitive economic offenders under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, with the application pending consideration in the Raipur special court. Originally a clothes salesman from Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, Chandrakar had also run a juice centre and teamed up with Ravi Uppal to create the betting platform in 2018. He holds an Indian passport and a passport of the Republic of Vanuatu.
Sources said Ravi Uppal is believed to be either in Dubai or Vanuatu. So far, 13 accused have been arrested in the case by the ED, and the Mahadev Betting App racket is still operational under different names. The total value of properties attached, seized, or frozen in the case stands at around Rs 4,336 crore.
The ED has issued a Provisional Attachment Order (PAO) and attached 20 immovable properties, including 18 in Dubai and two in New Delhi, worth nearly Rs 1,700 crore. The agency alleged that the properties belong to Chandrakar and are held in the names of entities controlled by him and his associates. The agency alleged that the assets were acquired from proceeds of crime generated through illegal online betting operations linked to the Mahadev platform and other similar applications.
