New Delhi:
In the ₹200 crore wedding held in February this year in the UAE, all payments were made entirely in cash. This information brought Mahadev Online Book App into the target of investigating agencies. This app came into limelight this afternoon when actor Ranbir Kapoor, who appeared in the app’s advertisements, was called for questioning by the Enforcement Directorate on Friday.
Saurabh Chandrakar, one of the promoters of the online betting platform, got married in Ras Al-Khaimah in February. In this, private jets were hired to transport the family members. Many celebrities performed at the wedding ceremony and a Mumbai-based event firm organized the event. It is being said that all this was paid in cash and this alerted the ED.
“Saurabh Chandrakar got married in RAK, UAE in February 2023 and the promoters of Mahadev APP spent approximately Rs 200 crore in cash for this wedding ceremony,” the ED said in a statement on September 15.
The agency said that according to digital evidence, ₹112 crore was delivered to the event management firm through hawala transactions and hotel bookings worth ₹42 crore were made in cash in UAE currency.
Searches were also conducted at the premises of the travel agency that had booked tickets for Mahadev app promoters, their family members and celebrities who endorsed websites on the platform.
M/s Rapid Travels is run by Dheeraj Ahuja and Vishal Ahuja. “The illegal cash earnings from the betting panels were cleverly deposited by the Ahuja brothers with the main ticket providers, and the wallet balances were used to book domestic and international tickets,” the ED said.
The ED statement said, “Saurabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal have built an empire for themselves in the UAE. They are openly flaunting windfall and illegal wealth. A large-scale hawala operation was conducted to transfer betting proceeds to offshore accounts. “Large expenditure in cash is being made for advertising and promotion of betting websites in India required to attract new users and franchise (panel) seekers.”
The central agency said that the ED has so far conducted searches at 39 places and seized illegal assets worth Rs 417 crore.