ED conducts fresh searches in Mahadev app linked money laundering case

Official sources said about 15 premises in these locations are being covered by the investigators of the federal probe agency under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday conducted raids in six places of West Bengal as part of its investigation into a money laundering case linked to the Mahadev online gaming and betting app that purportedly involved various politicians and bureaucrats from Chhattisgarh, officials said.

The six places included the residence and office of a businessman in Salt Lake and the house of a share trader at Hatibagan in Kolkata.

Several documents related to business transactions, share deals, and bank accounts belonging to the businessman were seized, an official said.

The team from Chhattisgarh will be checking the documents.

A total of 15 premises in Mumbai, West Bengal and the Delhi-NCR as part of the investigation, official sources said.

The ED had earlier said that the alleged illegal funds generated by the app were used to pay bribe to politicians and bureaucrats in Chhattisgarh, from where its main promoters and operatives hail.

Many celebrities and Bollywood actors were also summoned for questioning by the agency on their links with the online betting platform and the mode of payment.

So far, the ED has filed two charge sheets in this case, including against the two main promoters of the alleged illegal betting and gaming app — Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal — among others. It had undertaken multiple raids in the case earlier.

The projected proceeds of crime in this case are about Rs 6,000 crore, according to the ED.