Mahadev app owner Ravi Uppal detained in Dubai; ED seeks deportation

Ravi Uppal, one of two owners of Mahadev online betting app, detained in Dubai by local police on Interpol red notice. ED probing money laundering case linked to illegal betting. ED filed charge sheet against Uppal & another promoter in PMLA court. Red notice issued by Interpol on ED's request. ED alleges Uppal generated & enjoyed proceeds of crime. ED claims Rs. 6,000 crore proceeds of crime. ED alleges Rs. 508 crore paid to former Chhattisgarh CM. Mahadev online book app run from UAE, does 70-30 profit ratio, hawala operations to off-shore accounts. Company promoters from Bhilai, India.

Ravi Uppal, one of the two main owners of the Mahadev online betting app, has been detained in Dubai by the local police on the basis of a red notice issued by the Interpol at the behest of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), official sources said Wednesday, Decem,ber 13, 2023.

Uppal, 43, was detained last week in that country and the ED authorities are in touch with the Dubai authorities to get him deported to India, they said.

The businessman is being probed by the ED in a money laundering case linked to alleged illegal betting through online apps apart from the Chhattisgarh and Mumbai Police crime branch.

The federal probe agency had filed a money laundering charge sheet against Uppal and another promoter of the Internet-based platform, Sourabh Chandrakar, before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Chhattisgarh's Raipur in October.

A red notice was subsequently issued against the two by the Interpol on the basis of the ED's request based on a court issued non-bailable warrant.

Process is on to find Chandrakant, 28, too, the sources said.

The agency had informed the court in the charge sheet that Uppal has taken a passport of Vanuatu, an island country in the Pacific Ocean, even as he has not renounced Indian citizenship.