Ravi Uppal, a primary owner of the Mahadev online betting app, was apprehended in Dubai by local police based on a red notice issued by Interpol at the request of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), as per official reports on Wednesday. Sources indicate that the 43-year-old Uppal was taken into custody last week, and the ED is currently coordinating with Dubai authorities to facilitate his deportation to India.
The ED is probing Uppal in a money laundering case linked to alleged illegal betting apart from the Chhattisgarh Police and Mumbai Police.
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ED filed money laundering charge sheet
A money laundering charge sheet has been filed 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 by the federal probe agency. A red notice was subsequently issued by the Interpol based on ED’s request.
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.
Uppal, the ED said in the prosecution complaint, “generated and enjoyed proceeds of crime and is involved in their concealment and layering.”
It had alleged Uppal was “looking after the delivery of the liasioning money to the bureaucrats and politicians of Chhattisgarh through Chandrabhushan Verma”, an assistant sub inspector of police, and some others. The projected proceeds of crime in this case is about Rs 6,000 crore, as per the ED.
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