Mahadev betting app case kingpin held in Dubai, may be extradited to India soon

Noida, Oct 11 (IANS) The kingpin of the Mahadev betting app case, Saurabh Chandrakar, was arrested in Dubai, and it is expected that he will be extradited to India in the next 10 days, officials said.

Chandrakar’s arrest comes following an Interpol Red Corner notice issued by the Enforcement Directorate.

The Mahadev betting app is also linked to Noida. After a major action here, all the documents were handed over to the ED. Many people were arrested in this case and in just one and a half months, Noida Police detected transactions worth Rs 400 crore. It is believed that only due to the input and action of Noida Police, this mastermind could be caught.

Noida's Sector-39 police station arrested Sachin Soni, a close associate of Saurabh Chandrakar, on February 10 last year after busting the gang involved in online gaming fraud. He was the person who would deal with Saurabh Chandrakar and other members of the gang.

Sachin Soni was the main kingpin in India who had taken a house in sector-108 on rent of Rs 68,000 per month from the landlord for web designing work. The main gate was locked by the accused while going out and coming inside the building so that locals would think that no one lives in the building. Sachin Soni used to provide daily necessities to other members of the gang inside the house through Anasaf Khan.

Police said that the accused used to give demos to the customers for playing games and choosing websites. Then the customers choose their favourite websites like cricketbuzz.com, betbhai.com, iskai1exchange.com etc to play the game. Then the customers were given the option to transfer money through Phone Pay, Google Pay, Paytm, etc to make the payment. After that, the customers used to play online games like Cricket, Football, Tennis, Election, Kabaddi, Teen Patti, Casino, Roulette, Dragon Tiger, Live Casino and many card games with their money.

The modus operandi of this gang was that they used to transfer the money won by the customer after investing less money with the aim of tempting him. But If the customer wins by investing more money, then his ID is blocked and the money is withdrawn. The main accused Saurabh Chandrakar had taken mobile-savvy youths from Bhilai, Chhattisgarh to Dubai.

The betting app was started by renting a villa in Dubai. The network of this game spread to 11 countries including Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Saurabh started operating Mahadev Book, Reddy Anna Book and Ambani Book. Its associates are running online betting in different countries. Saurabh Chandrakar from Dubai operating an online betting racket, Mahadev Book was reportedly earning Rs 250-300 crore per month.

It is worth noting that Noida Police have booked 18 people from an International Gaming Betting Site (Mahadev Gaming App) under the Gangster Act.

The police had arrested 18 people from different cities of Uttar Pradesh in this case. Before being caught, these people had made transactions worth more than Rs 400 crore in just one and a half months. Police investigation revealed that their kingpin was operating the gaming from Dubai. This case is also connected to D-company.

--IANS

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