Raipur: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday conducted searches at 60 locations, including the residence of former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, in connection with the alleged Rs 6,000 crore Mahadev betting app scam, officials said.
The agency teams swooped down at Baghel’s residences in Raipur and Bhilai, as well as the houses of a senior police officer and a close associate of the former CM, they said.
In a post from Baghel’s X handle, the Congress leader’s office said, “Now CBI has arrived. Former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is scheduled to go to Delhi today for the meeting of the ‘Drafting Committee’ constituted for the AICC meeting to be held in Ahmedabad (Gujarat) on 8 and 9 April. Before that, the CBI has reached Raipur and Bhilai Niwas.”
The Congress said the CBI’s searches at Baghel’s residences were politically motivated, and asserted it will not be intimidated by such actions.
The searches also covered the premises of Congress MLA Devendra Yadav in Bhilai town of Durg district and of IPS officers Anand Chhabra, Abhishek Pallava and Arif Sheikh, among others, sources said.
“In the investigation of Mahadev Book online betting scam, the CBI today is conducting searches at 60 locations across Chhattisgarh, Bhopal, Kolkata and Delhi including premises linked to politicians, senior bureaucrats, police officers, key functionaries of Mahadev Book, and other private individuals suspected of involvement in the case,” a CBI Spokesperson said in a statement.
The agency said that the case pertains to the illegal operations of Mahadev Book, an online betting platform promoted by Ravi Uppal and Saurabh Chandrakar, both of whom are currently based in Dubai.
“Investigations have revealed that the promoters allegedly paid substantial amounts as ‘protection money’ to public servants to ensure the smooth and uninterrupted functioning of their illegal betting network,” the statement said.
In the course of searches, which continue, incriminating digital and documentary evidence were found and seized, it said.
The state government last year handed over to the CBI 70 cases related to the alleged Mahadev scam lodged with different police stations and one case registered with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in the state.
The CBI has taken over the investigation from the EOW of the Chhattisgarh Police, which had earlier named Baghel, promoters of the app, Uppal, Chandrakar, Shubham Soni, and Anil Kumar Agrawal, and 14 others in its FIR.
