To run a multi-crore online betting racket, all you need are some laptops, a few bank accounts, a website, and a public that wants easy money. Add to it advertisements and paid endorsements pushed by a few ignorant celebrities and social media influencers and you have the perfect recipe for spinning a massive online betting network — much like the owners of the Mahadev app.
It was not the Enforcement Directorate (ED) but a team of cops in Chhattisgarh that unearthed the online betting app racket, with investigators telling News18 that owners Sourabh Chandrakar, 28, and Ravi Uppal, 43, too did not expect that they could mint money so easily. A query has been sent by News18 through the Mahadev website contact but no response has been received.
Investigators claimed that the duo first targeted people at the hyper-local level and as they grew, the racket became multinational. Following the trend, various small players also entered the game, and the same modus operandi was adopted by offshore betting apps that are not only illegal but also snatch public money and data of Indians, Chhattisgarh police official said. Agencies are also not denying that a few betting apps funded terror and Naxals.
However, all small fish gave up to the shark of the illegal betting world — the Mahadev app. Officials also exploring if any gang actually helped Duo to take the relative to middle East.
How A Suicide & Kidnapping Triggered the End
Just like Chinese loan apps, the Mahadev app came under the scanner of the Chhattisgarh Police after a man, who was a regular on the platform, died by suicide in Durg district. During the investigation, it was revealed that he placed bets online. When cops connected the dots, they found that a kidnapping case was also registered with links to the owners of the same company.
“Everything started with a suicide when a poor person here (Durg) died by suicide. During the investigation, we found that he was involved in online betting and had lost all his money. The probe also revealed that a case was registered a few months ago under sections of kidnapping where the owners of the same company had abducted their employees who refused to work with them.
“As the investigation moved on, we found an entire network running through bank accounts where people sitting somewhere in the country with merely a laptop were siphoning money,” Durg SP Abhishek Pallava, a 2013 batch IPS officer who unearthed the betting racket, told News18. Pallava’s team arrested close to 260 accused in the 25 cases and found that close to three dozen offices were established by the gang.
How did the scam grow so swiftly?
News18 spoke to various state police officers and a few officials from central agencies who are directly working or have been working to crack the online betting apps nexus.
Officials claimed that Mahadev app ran at the local level initially but the Covid-19 pandemic gave the owners a chance to grow their racket.
A senior Chhattisgarh Police official said the duo hired operators and agents to get customers, taking advantage of the lockdown during which people were forced to work from home or were idle. After the second wave, the two decided to increase the customer base. They arranged a few bank accounts — just like Chinese loan apps — by paying some money to those in need and obtained their documents to make them directors, a senior investigator who didn’t wish to be named told News18. He also said that Later, they opened shell companies that were further linked to a few corporate accounts. They also roped in people sitting in various states and asked them to distribute IDs.
After generating a massive response, the duo started selling their franchise at a cost ranging from Rs 20-50 lakhs, an investigator said.
“The operators used to get up to 20 per cent of betting cost and agents would get 6-7 per cent. Once you deposit the money, they lure you to play more which keeps increasing their money base. For incoming money, they gave the details of a separate bank account while another one was operational to send money. Later, after frequent intervals, money would be deposited to corporate accounts from where it probably moved to the original owners, allegedly through the Hawala route,” Pallava said.
Illegal But Promoted By All
Mahadev and other linked betting apps roped in celebrities and social media influencers apart from sports channels to promote their illegal racket.
Lured by the promise of ad revenues, celebrities and companies started working like agents to promote fraud betting apps. In fact, once the URL of these sites is blocked, the companies — which are registered in countries like the Netherlands, Dubai, the UK, and some enemy countries — once again use these celebrities to promote their new, similar site to divert traffic.
“It came to the notice of the government that several sports channels on television as well as on OTT platforms have recently been showing advertisements of offshore online betting platforms as well as their surrogate news websites,” an official communication of a central agency said while talking about betting apps.
Over 8,000 Victims Who Filed Complaints
After the initial investigation, when the issues reached central agencies, it was found that almost all small betting apps were linked to two big sharks — Reddy Anna and Mahadev.
Since 2018, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) has received around 8,000 complaints in the category of Online Gambling/Betting this year.
“Online offshore betting/gambling platforms are now using news websites to advertise these platforms on digital media. The Ministry of Home Affairs has found that the logos of surrogate news websites bear striking resemblance to betting platforms. It is learnt that neither the betting platforms nor such news websites are registered under any lawful authority in India. Such websites are promoting betting and gambling under the garb of news through surrogate advertising,” an official communication of a central Intelligence agency says.
