ED reveals: Promoters of Mahadev Satta App reportedly sent money during elections to former CM Bhupesh Baghel

Raipur
During the assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, the then Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was allegedly given Rs 508 crore by Mahadev Satta App promoters. This has been revealed in the ED charge sheet. According to ED, Asim Das has said in his statement that Shubham Soni, a promoter of Mahadev Online Book, had entrusted him with the task of delivering cash to Baghel.
Das was called to Dubai by Shubham Soni on October 25, 2023. Cash was made available to Bhupesh Baghel to deliver the money. This claim has been made from a voice message recovered from Das’s phone. The charge sheet names several other accused persons including Shubham Soni, Anil Kumar Agrawal alias Atul Agrawal, Rohit Gulati, Bhim Singh Yadav and Asim Das. The hearing of the case will take place on January 10.
Shubham Soni’s emails and statements of other witnesses, including Chandrabhushan Verma, indicate that constable Bhim Singh Yadav acted as a medium for Mahadev Online Book in payment of “liaisoning money”.
In the case, accused Shubham Soni had sent a mail to ED, which was certified through the embassy. According to Shubham Soni, former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and his son Chaitanya Baghel were given Rs 508 crore to run the Mahadev Satta app.
According to former Deputy CM TS Singhdeo, earlier too the ED had taken the name of Bhupesh Baghel to influence the elections in the state. His name was added based on the statement of Asim Das. Whereas Das himself had said that this statement was taken from him under pressure.
On November 2, ED had raided Triton Hotel in Raipur and a house in Bhilai. During this period an amount of more than Rs 5 crore was recovered. Driver Aseem Das and police constable Bhim Singh Yadav were arrested. During interrogation, accused Aseem Das had given information about sending crores of rupees to Congress leaders. Both the accused are currently in jail.
ED suspects that the money found from his house is from an online betting app, which was kept to be spent in the elections. ED officials had entered the house of Aseem Das by breaking the lock of his house to take action. Both Asim Das and the constable are accused of working with absconding Saurabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal in the betting case in Dubai.
\Betting network was operating from Dubai
On January 1, ED had presented a supplementary prosecution complaint in the special court against constable Bhim Singh Yadav and driver Asim Das in the Mahadev online betting case. In which Shubham Soni of Bhilai, Anil Agrawal and Rohit Gulati of Raigarh were made accused.
In which it was revealed that along with Saurabh Chandrakar, Ravi Uppal, Shubham Soni is also a promoter in Mahadev App. All three are running a betting network living in Dubai.
Shubham Soni, a promoter of Mahadev Satta App, was made a government witness. He was given the responsibility of keeping accounts of the money given from politicians to officials.

\Mahadev Book’s Hawala connection from Bollywood
Saurabh started investing the income from online betting app in Bollywood films and hotel business. Due to investing in films and various businesses, Saurabh and Ravi Uppal came in contact with many famous people including Bollywood actors, singers, government officials.
In February 2020, the Income Tax Department raided the houses of many bureaucrats and politicians in Chhattisgarh, at the same time the Mahadev app came into limelight for the first time. After this, Saurabh’s high profile parties in Dubai attracted everyone’s attention.
On one side of the newspaper, the promotion of his betting Mahadev app was being published and on the other side, the news of the arrest of his agents was being published. Police say that Mahadev Book App was being operated from more than 30 centers in the country.
Despite this, Chhattisgarh Police’s investigation was not able to reach Saurabh and Ravi. Ultimately this case went from the hands of the state police to the ED. When ED started investigating the Mahadev Book in the money laundering case, a large number of people started getting trapped.
Saurabh Chandrakar got married with much fanfare in Dubai in February 2023. About 17 big celebs had come to attend this wedding ceremony. After this wedding ceremony, Saurabh came under the target of ED.
Saurabh Chandrakar got married with much fanfare in Dubai in February 2023. About 17 big celebs had come to attend this wedding ceremony. After this wedding ceremony, Saurabh came under the target of ED.
In August 2023, ED arrested ASI Chandrabhushan Verma, Satish Chandrakar of Chhattisgarh Police. Businessman Anil Dammani and Sunil Dammani had sent money to him from abroad through Hawala. Both the businessmen had connections with Mahadev Book. He was also arrested. After these arrests, ED shared information about Mahadev betting app for the first time.
After this, ED conducted raids in about 39 cities across the country and seized many documents along with cash worth Rs 417 crore. The locations where ED raided also included the locations of Bhupesh Baghel’s OSD and a political advisor. After this raid, many revelations were made on the hawala business of the owners of Mahadev Book. Also, this app was accused of embezzlement of more than Rs 5,000 crore.

ED officials say that information has been sought from Ranbir Kapoor as to from whom he was getting money to promote this app. Apart from Ranbir, 14 celebs including Kapil Sharma, Huma Qureshi, Sunny Leone, Hina Khan have been summoned. There are allegations against them of taking money through hawala.
ED found in its investigation that Saurabh and Ravi used the Hawala network to transfer the earnings from betting to their foreign accounts. Vikas Chhaparia, a resident of Kolkata, looked after all the hawala work for the company. After the ED investigation intensified, most of the family members of Saurabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal shifted to Dubai.