CG Police names Bhupesh Baghel in FIR in Mahadev app case

“Unnamed” bureaucrats, police officers, and officers on special duty during Baghel’s stint as chief minister have also been identified.

The Chhattisgarh Police have filed a first information report, citing former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel as an accused in the Mahadev betting app scandal.

The FIR also names “unnamed” bureaucrats, police officers, and officers on special assignment while Baghel was chief minister.

Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, the Mahadev app’s two primary promoters, have also been named, as have 16 other accused.

Mahadev Online Book, a betting software, apparently allowed unlawful betting on live events like poker, cricket, tennis, and football, as well as on Indian elections.

In November, the Central Government issued blocking orders against the application.

Baghel has been charged under sections of the Indian Penal Code that cover cheating, criminal conspiracy, breach of trust, and forgery.

On March 4, the Economic Offences Wing in Raipur charged him under Sections 7 and 11 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act specifies that acquiring, accepting, or seeking to receive an undue advantage from a public official is an offense. Section 11 addresses the punishment for such offences.

According to the FIR, the Mahadev app and its associated organizations illegally received Rs 450 crore in crime proceeds each month.

The Enforcement Directorate accused Baghel in a supplementary chargesheet in January, alleging that he received bribes of nearly Rs 508 crore from the creators of the Mahadev App.

On November 3, four days before the first phase of the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections, the Enforcement Directorate detained Aseem Das and a constable called Bhim Singh Yadav. The investigators confiscated Rs 5.39 crore in cash from Das’ automobile.

The federal agency claimed that Baghel was paid Rs 508 crore by a cash courier delivered from the UAE by the promoters of the Mahadev app.

On November 17, Das submitted a letter to the director of the Enforcement Directorate and copied various agencies, including the prime minister’s office and the court.

Das wrote that he was implicated in the case and that the central agency forced him to sign a statement in English, which he does not understand.

He further stated that the money confiscated from the automobile was intended to launch a construction firm. He acknowledged to visiting Dubai twice in October, both visits coordinated by Soni, a boyhood buddy.

In January, the Enforcement Directorate announced that Das had withdrawn his denial. Das stated in his statement that he traveled to Raipur, Chhattisgarh, to transfer the money to “political executives” of the “Indian Congress party” at the request of Shubham Soni, one of the primary defendants in the Mahadev app case.

Das stated that he withdrew his statement against Baghel “under influence” because he believed it would improve his case.

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