The CBI on Wednesday raided former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel's house in Raipur as well as Bhilai in connection with the alleged Rs 6,000 crore Mahadev betting app scam. There were reports that a multi-agency raid was conducted at the Congress leader's residence. The agency teams also raided the houses of a senior police officer and a close associate of the former CM.
CBI took over the probe from the Economic Offences Wing of the Chhattisgarh Police, which had named Baghel, promoters of the app Ravi Uppal, Saurabh Chandrakar, Shubham Soni, and Anil Kumar Agrawal, and 14 others in its FIR.
The Enforcement Directorate alleged that its probe revealed the involvement of several top politicians and bureaucrats from Chhattisgarh. Baghel had termed the FIR "politically motivated."
The app was an umbrella syndicate arranging online platforms for illegal betting websites to enrol new users, create user IDs and launder money through a layered web of 'benami' bank accounts, it claimed.
ED Raids At Bhupesh Baghel's House
Earlier, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) conducted searches at 14 locations in the Durg district, including the residences of Bhupesh Baghel and his son Chaitanya Baghel, in connection with an alleged liquor scam.
After the raids, Baghel said the agency found a pen drive with a conversation about financial transactions involving Manturam and Puneet Gupta, son-in-law of Raman Singh, papers related to the SAIL company linked to Abhishek Singh, son of Raman Singh, and a total of Rs 33 lakh in cash, which he described as income from farming, dairy and family savings.
He also accused the agency of bringing note-counting machines to create a spectacle.
"An atmosphere was created that note counting machines had been brought. I don't think this is a very large amount. It is clear that now asking questions in Vidhan Sabha has become a crime," he had said.