Mahadev Betting App Owner Ravi Uppal detained by Dubai Police

December 13, 2023

Ravi Uppal, one of the two main owners of Mahadev online betting app, has been taken into custody by the local police in Dubai based on a Red Corner Notice issued by Interpol at the request of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Official sources gave this information on Wednesday. According to sources, Uppal (43) was detained last week and Enforcement Directorate officials are in touch with Dubai authorities to bring him to India. The Enforcement Directorate is investigating Uppal in a money laundering case related to alleged illegal betting. Apart from the Directorate, Chhattisgarh Police and Mumbai Police are also investigating.

The federal probe agency had in October filed a charge sheet in a money laundering case against Uppal and another promoter of the internet-based platform, Saurabh Chandrakar, before a special court under the ‘Prevention of Money Laundering Act’ (PMLA) in Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

Interpol later issued a Red Corner Notice on the request of the Enforcement Directorate. The agency had told the court in the charge sheet that Uppal holds a passport of Vanuatu, an island country in the Pacific Ocean, and has not renounced Indian citizenship.

It was alleged that Uppal was overseeing the delivery of bribe money to bureaucrats and politicians of Chhattisgarh through an assistant police sub-inspector ‘Chandrabhushan Verma’ and some others.

According to the Enforcement Directorate, the estimated proceeds of crime in this case are around Rs 6,000 crore. Just ahead of the first phase of Chhattisgarh assembly elections in November, the agency had claimed that forensic analysis and a statement given by a person named Aseem Das had led to ‘shocking’ revelations that the promoters of the Mahadev betting app had used money from former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.