Taking major action against illegal online betting, ED has attached movable and immovable properties worth Rs 91.82 crore in the money laundering case related to Mahadev Online Book and Skyexchange.com. This action has been taken by Raipur Zonal Office under PMLA.
In this action, ED froze the bank balance of Rs 74.28 crore. This money was deposited in the accounts of M/s Perfect Plan Investment LLC and M/s Exim General Trading – GZCO. Investigation revealed that these companies were used by Saurabh Chandrakar, Anil Kumar Aggarwal and Vikas Chhaparia to disguise the money earned from illegal betting.
what is the whole matter
Gagan Gupta’s assets worth Rs 17.5 crore have also been attached. Gagan Gupta is said to be close to Skyexchange.com owner Hari Shankar Tibrewal. According to the ED, the high-value real estate and liquid assets in the name of Gagan Gupta and his family were purchased with cash obtained from speculation. Investigation has revealed that illegal betting was being done on a large scale through apps and websites like Mahadev Online Book and Skyexchange.com. Mahadev Online Book app was a kind of platform, which used to provide customers to many illegal betting websites and mobile apps and handle their financial transactions.
ED says that the system was “rigged” in such a way that ultimately the customers would suffer loss. In this way thousands of crores of rupees were collected and distributed according to pre-decided profit-sharing. Investigation also revealed that benami bank accounts were opened through fake or stolen KYC documents. Illegal betting money was routed through these accounts so that its real identity could be hidden. This entire money was neither shown in the books of accounts nor brought under the tax net.
money sent abroad through hawala
According to ED, the money earned from illegal betting was sent abroad through hawala, trade-based money laundering and crypto assets. After this, this money was brought back to India in the name of foreign FPI and invested in the stock market. A special cashback scheme has also come to light in the investigation. Under this, FPI companies used to invest heavily in Indian listed companies and in return the promoters of those companies had to return 30 to 40 percent of the investment amount in cash.
According to ED, Gagan Gupta gained at least Rs 98 crore from such deals. In this case Salasar Techno Engineering Ltd. And Tiger Logistics Ltd. Names of such companies have also surfaced. In the action so far, ED has raided more than 175 locations in this case. Movable and immoveable assets worth about Rs 2600 crore have been seized, frozen or attached. 13 people have been arrested and 74 organizations have been made accused while 5 charge sheets have been filed.
ED says that the investigation is still going on and in the coming days there may be more revelations related to this big online betting and money laundering network.
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