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Mahadev Book owner Saurabh Chandrakar spends Rs 200 crore in wedding; ED freezes Rs 417 crore

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  • September 15, 2023
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Mahadev Book owner Saurabh Chandrakar wedding

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) recently seized assets worth Rs 417 crore as a part of their investigation towards illegal betting app Mahadev Book. The ED is also actively probing against Mahadev Book’s masterminds Saurabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal. Searches were conducted across

These angadiya entities were used as hawala channel to transfer money to an event management firm in Mumbai. Notably, Chandrakar hired the firm to take care of his wedding preparations back in February.

As per ED reports, Chandrakar spent over 200 crore on his wedding in Dubai, out of which over 100 crore was paid to the event management firm. Private jets were arranged for the people attending the wedding, including celebrities who were hired to perform during the ceremony.

“Wedding planners, dancers, decorators etc. were hired from Mumbai and hawala channels were used to make payments in cash. As per the digital evidences gathered by ED, Rs 112 Crore was delivered via hawala to an events’ management company,” ED said as per NDTV.

The receipt for Rs 112 Crore hawala money was found during search conducted in the premises of Yogesh Popat, one Mithilesh & other linked Organizers. Further, ED officials also seized Rs 2.37 Crore during search.

Saurabh Chandrakar’s star-studded marriage

Few of the celebrities named by ED includes Atif Aslam, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Ali Asgar, Vishal Dadlani, Tiger Shroff, Elli AvrRam, Bharti Singh, Sunny Leone, Bhagyashree, Kriti Kharbanda, Nushrratt Bharuccha and Krushna Abhishek.

ED is looking in getting a statement from celebrities that were paid and invited to attend the wedding. Prior to the whole extensive investigation, celebrities were also hired to promote Mahadev book to fans.

Chandrakar and Uppal run the entire illegal betting network from Dubai. Both of them started as local bookies but moved abroad and created the illegal app to operate on large scale.

Owners of Rapid Travels, Dheeraj Ahuja and Vishal Ahuja were also investigated by the ED. Reportedly, they were responsible for booking tickets for Chandrakar’s family, celebrities, and others promoting betting websites like FairPlay, Reddy Anna and Mahadev Book.

Few other operators are also identified that were involved in money laundering. A person named Vikash Chhaparia was responsible for all hawala transactions along with his associate Govind Kedia.
ED successfully froze Rs 236.3 crore worth of security holdings owned by Vikas Chhaparia under PMLA. Kedia was also not spared, as ED also booked Kedia’s 160 crore worth of equity holdings.

Celebrity advertisements and luring in people with promises of hefty returns are some common tricks used by Mahadev Book operators to make people bet on their app. The money earned is then siphoned off through various hawala networks to Dubai.

Recent arrest of some high-ranked operators has led to many others involved. The ongoing extensive investigation has led authorities to issue a Red Corner Notice against Chandrakar and Uppal.

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