Know All About Sourabh Chandrakar, Betting App Promoter Who Spent Rs 200 Cr On His UAE Wedding
The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday arrested four people while probing a money laundering case involving Mahadev online betting app, in which its two leading promoters, Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, who live in Dubai, may have accumulated as much as Rs 5,000 crores.?
A star-studded affair
The investigating agency, which also impounded assets of Rs 417 crore in the case, disclosed that the app's promoter and accused, Saurabh Chandrakar, had a grand Rs 200 crore wedding in Ras Al Khaimah (RAK), UAE, this year. The lavish affair reportedly saw the attendance of famous film celebrities like Tiger Shroff, Atif Aslam, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Sunny Leone, Neha Kakkar, Vishal Dadlani, Ali Asgar, Bharti Singh, Bhagyashree and Pulkit.?
Chandrakar spent a total of Rs 200 crore?for his wedding in Dubai, which happened in February. Out of this, around?Rs 100 crore was given to a Malad-based event firm. People attending the wedding,?including the celebrities who were hired to perform, reportedly got jet flights arranged for them.
The ED also plans to record statements from celebrities who were paid and invited to the wedding.
Besides his wedding, Bollywood stars also attended a third-anniversary party on September 18, 2022. Celebrities like Sanjay Dutt, Kapil Sharma, Aftab Shivdasani, Sukhvinder Singh, Sophie Chaudhary, Daisy Shah, Urvasahi Rautela, Nargis Fakhri, Neha Sharma, and several others were present.
Also, Mahadev Booking employed celebrities to advertise its apps to fans.??
Chandrakar's early life?
Chandrakar and Uppal began their journey as?local bookies but eventually shifted abroad and created this illegal app to cover a larger?audience. In their twenties,?Chandrakar?used to sell juice in Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, whereas Uppal was an engineering graduate. Later, in 2018, they moved to Dubai and?started the platform.?
Thereon, the duo went full-throttle with their app by?enticing students, unemployed youth, farmers and others with the guarantee of making money in a short span. As the app extended its reach, it?continued to skirt India's foreign exchange, money-laundering and taxation regulations by letting its users use credit cards, UPI, debit cards and bank transfers for betting.
Chandrakar then utilised the inactive or semi-active accounts for a small fee to make transactions. This made it challenging for authorities to track the transactions worth crores through multiple accounts.
In recent years, his app elevated?Chandrakar to a standing where he dominated India's illegal offshore gambling and went on to acquire brands like FairPlay, Reddy Anna and Lotus365. He even founded ingenious new brands under 'Betbhai' and Ambani Book'.
Mahadev Online Booking?
According to the ED, Mahadev Online Booking presents an illegal betting platform through various games like poker, card games, chance games, tennis, cricket, badminton, football and others. But the operations didn't stop there as it also offered an avenue to gamble on different elections in India.
The workings of the Mahadev Online Bookings were regulated by Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, who operate it from Dubai. The two promoters fully control the operation and hold 80% of the profits. According to ED, the two have made close to Rs 5,000 crore from this app together.
They employed angadiya entities (informal couriers) to ferry liquid case and precious metals through bullion trades and jewellers in return for a small fee. These angadiya entities were raided by the ED in eight locations.
During the search, it was found that the angadiya entities supplied money to an event management firm in Mumbai's Malad region. This is the same firm that Chandrakar engaged to take care of his wedding preparations in February.??
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