NEW DELHI: Ravi Uppal, one of the promoters of the Mahadev online betting app, has been arrested in the United Arab Emirates, with Indian agencies now working to bring him back to face investigation, officials said on Wednesday.The arrest comes just days after another key figure in the alleged betting network, Saurabh Chandrakar, was brought to India from Oman. A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team returned with Chandrakar on 1 November after a court in Oman approved his extradition in a money laundering case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).Uppal, 46, was taken into custody by authorities in Dubai on the basis of an Interpol Red Notice issued at the request of Indian investigating agencies, officials told PTI. The CBI and the ED are now coordinating efforts to secure his extradition to India.This is not the first time Uppal has come under the radar of authorities in the UAE. He was detained there in 2023, but Indian agencies later learnt that he was in Australia.Investigators have also alleged that Uppal, like Chandrakar, secured a passport from Vanuatu, an island country in the South Pacific.In its charge sheet filed in October 2023, the ED alleged that Uppal had “generated and enjoyed proceeds of crime and is involved in their concealment and layering”.The agency further accused him of “looking after the delivery of the liaisoning money to the bureaucrats and politicians of Chhattisgarh through Chandrabhushan Verma, an assistant sub-inspector of police, and some others”.Uppal and Chandrakar are both from Bhilai in Chhattisgarh’s Durg district.
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Meanwhile, a special court in Raipur on Wednesday granted the CBI eight days of custody of Chandrakar for further questioning.According to the CBI, the Mahadev app, also known as Mahadev Online Book (MOB), started operating in 2019-20. Its user base reportedly grew “sharply” during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and continued to increase afterwards.The app allegedly operated through thousands of panels and generated proceeds of crime estimated at Rs 80,000 crore since 2019, the agency said.