Mahadev Book bust: Cop booked for bribes worth Rs 65 crore in illegal betting scam

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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has revealed further information on Mahadev Book illegal betting app. After the recent arrest of Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel’s political advisor Vinod Verma, ASI Chandra Bhushan Verma, Satish Chandrakar, Anil Damani and Sunil Damani, now key details have been made public.

As per ED, ASI Verma has admitted to getting monthly bribes since May 2022. These bribes were given to put hurdles in the ongoing cases against Mahadev Book. He revealed that highly ranked officials in the CMO regularly received hefty kickbacks for similar work.

As per The Times of India, ASI Verma received sums close to Rs 65 crores. Out of this amount, the cop kept his own share, and distributed the same among several politicians. These people were paid to protect local bookmakers operating for Mahadev Book. These bookmakers dupe people by giving them false promise of heft returns on their bets, but people never used to win but only lost money.

The bookmakers used to provide people IDs from different betting websites. These included sites like laser247.com, laserbook247.com, betbhai.com, betbook247.com. This money was then moved to one of the several fake bank accounts that were opened by either luring poor people in with a promise of monthly bonus or using stolen identity cards.

Many of the wanted operators were trained in Dubai before being sent back to India. Notably, kingpins of the entire operation, Saurabh Chandrakar and his partner Ravi Uppal are currently residing in Dubai.

Despite many slowdowns, especially internal ones, the police have managed to arrest over 500 individuals. They also managed to disrupt the betting network by freezing crores of rupees last year. Despite that, illegal betting activities were still increasing at an alarming rate.

CM’s political advisor challenges ED

With the ongoing outcry on the matter of arrests linked to Mahadev Book, CM’s political advisor Vinod Verma has challenged ED to provide proof of his involvement. CM Baghel, in a recent announcement, said that he will soon address the media for further clarity on the matter.

“As far as my relation with Chandra Bhushan Verma is concerned, I challenge ED to give any evidence about any sort of connection with him, ED has raided my house. ED has no evidence against me. Was the ED raid based on merely the statement of just one person against me,” Vinod Verma said.

Verma also said that the news claiming his involvement in the matter are false and misleading and need to provide proof.

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