Chhattisgarh police bust major interstate IPL betting syndicate, arrest 11 bookies linked to Mahadev App

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The police have broken down an interstate betting syndicate involved in IPL cricket betting. The breakthrough began with the arrest of a local bookie, leading the police to trace connections all the way to Goa. Seven bookies were apprehended in Goa and brought back to Korba, Chattisgarh. The suspects were from various states, including four from Chhattisgarh, two from Maharashtra, and one from Haryana. It has been confirmed that their operations were linked to the Mahadev app.

As reported by Naiduniya, the investigation kicked off when Kotwali police, acting on a tip-off, detained Prateek Vidhwani near DDM School. Vidhwani was caught red-handed facilitating online betting on IPL matches. His mobile phone, seized during the arrest, revealed multiple bank accounts and WhatsApp groups used for transactions. The cyber cell team discovered transactions amounting to INR 1.7 crore across various bank accounts. Vidhwani’s interrogation revealed that his accomplices were operating a betting network from Goa using the Mahadev app panel.

Following this lead, a police team was dispatched to Goa under the leadership of City Superintendent of Police Ravindra Kumar Meena. With assistance from local police, they arrested Manish Udashi (36) from Raipur, Saurabh Naresh Manuj (22) from Wardha, Maharashtra, Madhur Seval Vlecha (22) from Raipur, Narayan Kumar Nishad (23) from Raipur, Kuldeep Singh (22) from Fatehabad, Haryana, Tikendra Mandavi (25) from Durg, and Dinesh Dilip Vaswani (30) from Nagpur, Maharashtra. All were brought to Korba and charged under the Gambling Act and IT Act, with additional fraud charges.

The operation unfolded after meticulous exploration of an apartment at Jayaram Nagar, Goa, where the bookies were running their operations from Flat No. C-406. Police found four suspects using laptops and mobile phones to manage online betting. They confessed to operating through the Mahadev M-100 ID panel. Subsequent raids led to the arrest of three more bookies from another apartment in the same area.

During the raids, police seized 13 laptops, 48 mobile phones worth INR 2.5 million, 26 bank passbooks, 14 bank cheques, and 40 ATM cards. Investigations revealed that INR 30 lakh had been held and frozen in 84 bank accounts, with total transactions exceeding INR 100 crore.

Additionally, four locals from Korba were arrested for renting their bank accounts to the bookies. They are identified as Vijay Dhari (34) from Purani Basti, Aditya Prasad Khairwar (19) from Saliyabhatha, Munna Khan (47) from Sita Mani, and Manish Pahuja (34) from Shantinagar. They have been charged under Section 8 of the Chhattisgarh Gambling Prohibition Act 2022.

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