Two months after registering a corruption case in the Mahadev online betting app scandal, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday launched raids in Chhattisgarh at several locations, including the residence of former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, people familiar with the development said.
The federal agency is probing a larger conspiracy in the ₹6,000 crore betting scam. HT was the first to report on January 21 that the CBI had registered a case on the request of Chhattisgarh government and that Baghel was under the scanner.
The CBI had registered a regular case (or first information report) by consolidating 77 FIRs from various police stations and the economic offences wing (EOW) in Chhattisgarh.
Baghel was named as an accused in an FIR filed by the Chhattisgarh Police on March 4, 2024, along with Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, the fugitive founders of Mahadev whose extraditions are being pursued in the United Arab Emirates.
This FIR has also been taken over by CBI.
Baghel had defended himself in the Mahadev probe earlier conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), saying his name was “forcefully” added by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state.
As first reported by HT, the Chhattisgarh government had recommended a CBI probe in the Mahadev case in August 2024, roughly nine months after the BJP came to power displacing the Congress.
Between August 2024 and January 2025, the CBI was occupied in consolidating the voluminous case documents including FIRs, charge sheets filed by the state police, and court documents after which a case was registered in January.
In its charge sheet filed in July 2024, the EOW of Chhattisgarh Police stated that the Mahadev service was still operational, and its promoters obtained protection from various police and administrative officials, as well as influential political figures to prevent legal action against their criminal activities related to online betting.
The ED, which is conducting a money laundering probe in the matter, has alleged that Chandrakar and Uppal paid bribes worth ₹508 crore to former CM Baghel. The FIR by the Chhattisgarh Police naming Baghel was, in fact, filed on the reference by the ED.
The agency has alleged that the Mahadev online betting app syndicate — which started in 2018 and saw Chandrakar and Uppal remotely run illegal betting operations, with the proceeds of crimes running into several thousand crores — allowed people to put illegal bets on live games such as poker, card games, chance games, matches of cricket, badminton, tennis and football, and even allowed access to apps to place bets on elections in India.
ED said in its second charge sheet that the “betting empire” was operating more than 3,200 (betting) panels in different cities, which generate around ₹240 crore per day.
ED added in its January 2024 charge sheet that “promoters of Mahadev Online Book had rented 20 villas in Dubai to accommodate its staff comprising 3,500 persons.”
So far, the ED has filed two charge sheets in the case, including one against Chandrakar and Uppal. It has estimated proceeds of crime in the case worth about ₹6,000 crore, out of which assets worth ₹2,426 crore have been attached, seized or frozen under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).