Mahadev App’s ‘Bettor Half’ Saurabh Chandrakar: From Making Rs 2,000/Month to Rs 5,000-Cr Scam Mastermind

The man who made Rs 2,000 a month at his juice shop in Chhattisgarh’s Bhilai to earning Rs 200 crore a day as the promoter of the Mahadev online betting app, which is now in the news over the Rs 5,000-crore scam, 28-year-old Saurabh Chandrakar’s life is no less than a movie script.

The scam has grabbed the headlines with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summons to actors such as Ranbir Kapoor, Kapil Sharma and Hina Khan, among others.

Chandrakar’s rise drew attention thanks to his Rs 250-crore wedding with massive presence of celebrities, and eventual emergence of his political, international and D-gang links.

Chandrakar, along with the other promoter Ravi Uppal, who started as a tyre shop owner, are now believed to be hiding abroad.

THE LAVISH WEDDING/ALARM BELLS

Chandrakar’s lavish Rs 250-crore wedding in Ras Al Khaimah, Dubai, in February led the investigators to the alleged hawala operations and their connections in the UAE and Pakistan.

In a recent media interaction, the ED claimed that Chandrakar had leased a private aircraft to fly his family and friends from Nagpur to Dubai for the wedding.

An amount of Rs 42 crore was spent on private jet and hotel accommodation arrangements. Surprisingly, the entire payment was made in cash, as per reports. Apart from this, Chandrakar paid Rs 142 crore to an event management company. Not only this, he even invited Bollywood artistes to perform at the wedding. According to an India Today report, musicians Vishal Dadlani, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Kriti Kharbanda, Tiger Shroff, Sunny Leone, Bharti Singh, Krushna Abhishek and Atif Aslam also attended this event.

Sources in the ED said as many as 17 Bollywood celebrities, including Shradha Kapoor, Tiger Shroff, Sonakshi Sinha and others, are under the scanner for performing at Chandrakar’s wedding in February this year and the company’s success party in September last year.

“The celebrities accepted a huge amount of cash as remuneration for attending or performing at the wedding. The money is proceeds of the crime and the celebrities are liable for taking the money. There are more than a dozen celebrities who participated in the wedding and they are seen in the videos," said a senior source in the ED.

THE MAHADEV SCAM & CELEBS FOR PROMOTION

According to the ED, the Mahadev Online Book App ran from a central head office in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It operated by franchising “panel/branches" to their known associates on a 70-30 profit ratio. The app enrolled new users, created user IDs and laundered money through a layered web of benami bank accounts. To get clients, the app had set up call centres, which were routed through the Netherlands, UAE, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The details were then shared with panel operators in India, operating primarily in Mumbai and Delhi, and also in some smaller cities such as Chandigarh and Chhattisgarh. There were 4,000-5,000 such panel operators.

The average daily profit of these panel operators ranged from Rs 150-200 crore, said ED.

The ED probe has suggested that the celebrities, including a dozen A-listers, including Bollywood, Tollywood actors and sportspersons, and 100 influencers were paid in lieu for endorsing the app on social media.

According to the ED, the Mahadev online book betting application is an umbrella syndicate arranging online platforms for enabling illegal betting websites. The ED has clubbed at least seven FIRs filed by the victims of the scam who lost their money. The FIRs were filed in Goa, Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Ahmedabad and Chhattisgarh.

THE POLITICAL LINK

A recent raid at the residence of Vinod Verma, political advisor to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, blew the lid off the former’s alleged connections with the betting company, a source in the ED told News18.

Following the raids, Verma, addressing the media, accused the ED of building a case against him based on “fictional" details and called the raids “dacoity".

HIS INTERNATIONAL LINKS

Around eight major international hawala operators are under the scanner for laundering money to Middle East countries and to Pakistan by running a similar portal. Chandrakar and his associates allegedly used at least 70 shell companies to launder money to offshore accounts.

The anti-money laundering agency is now exploring options to seek cooperation from international agencies to take legal action against Chandrakar.

The directorate has already raided several premises related to hawala operators across cities in India and attached Rs 417 crore. During a recent raid in Mumbai, the ED also tracked seven hawala kingpins who allegedly laundered the money. “Each hawala operator handled more than 500 dummy accounts to launder money," a source told News 18.

THE D-COMPANY CONNECTION

A recent news report in the Free Press Journal highlighted how gangster Lawrence Bishnoi had demanded extortion money from Chandrakar.

However, Bishnoi’s bid backfired as Chandrakar threatened him back, alleging links to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.