Mahadev App Case: Ravi Uppal, one of the two main owners of the Mahadev online betting app, has been detained in Dubai by the local police on the basis of a red notice issued by the Interpol at the behest of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), news agency PTI reported on Wednesday, citing official sources. Last week, Uppal was detained in that country and the ED authorities are coordinating with the Dubai authorities to get him deported to India, the news agency further stated.
Uppal, 43, is under the radar of the probe agency in a money laundering case linked to alleged illegal betting apart from the Chhattisgarh Police and Mumbai Police.
The agency had filed a money laundering charge sheet against Uppal and another promoter of the app, Sourabh Chandrakar, before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Chhattisgarh's Raipur in October. Based on ED's request, a red notice was subsequently issued by the Interpol.
In the charge sheet filed by ED, it had informed the court that Uppal has taken a passport of Vanuatu, an island country in the Pacific Ocean, even as he has not renounced Indian citizenship, PTI reported.
Uppal, the ED said in the prosecution complaint, "generated and enjoyed proceeds of crime and is involved in their concealment and layering," as quoted by PTI. It had alleged Uppal was "looking after the delivery of the liaisoning money to the bureaucrats and politicians of Chhattisgarh through Chandrabhushan Verma", an assistant sub-inspector of police, and some others.
According to ED, the projected proceeds of crime in this case is about Rs 6,000 crore. The agency had claimed in November, just before the first phase of Chhattisgarh assembly polls, that forensic analysis and statement made by a 'cash courier' named Asim Das have led to "startling allegations" that Mahadev betting app promoters have paid about Rs 508 crore to former Chhattisgarh chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel so far, adding that these allegations were "subject matter of investigation," as reported by PTI.