Mahadev betting case: ED conducts multi-state searches

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday conducted fresh multi-state searches, including at the premises of the founder of EaseMyTrip Nishant Pitti, in the Mahadev online betting app linked-money laundering case, officials said.

The raids are being undertaken at premises located in Delhi, Mumbai (Maharashtra), Chandigarh, Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Indore (Madhya Pradesh) Jaipur (Rajasthan), Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and Sambalpur in Odisha, they said.

The premises of Pitti, founder and chairman of online travel booking platform EaseMyTrip, are also being covered.

The case made headlines after the federal probe agency claimed a few years back that many high-ranking politicians and bureaucrats from Chhattisgarh are alleged to have been involved in the illegal operation and subsequent monetary transactions linked to the app.

Searches have been undertaken in this case in the past too.

The ED has alleged in the past that its probe in the Mahadev Online Betting (MOB) gaming and betting app has shown involvement of various high-ranking politicians and bureaucrats from Chhattisgarh, the state where the two main promoters, Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, of the app hail from.

It had said the MOB app is an umbrella syndicate arranging online platforms for enabling illegal betting websites to enroll new users, create user IDs and laundering of money through a layered web of benami bank accounts.