The Enforcement Directorate on Friday said it has made two fresh arrests in the Mahadev app-linked money laundering case in which various high-ranking politicians and bureaucrats from Chhattisgarh are alleged to have been involved.
Girish Talreja and Suraj Chokhani were taken into custody on March 2 and March 3, respectively. A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court sent them to ED custody till March 11, the agency said in a statement.
With these, the total arrests in the case stand at 11.
The ED said Talreja held a stake in 'Lotus365', a sister concern of Mahadev Online Book (MOB) app. He is a partner along with Ratan Lal Jain alias Aman and Sourabh Chandrakar, the main promoter of MOB, in the illegal operations of 'Lotus365', the agency alleged.
"Talreja played an active role in laundering proceeds of crime generated out of illegal operations of 'Lotus365'. Rs 50 crore betting cash was being handled by this branch per month and he was found to be one of the members of the 'cash handling WhatsApp group' of this branch," the ED claimed.
It said searches were conducted at the branches of 'Lotus365' on March 1 in Pune and Rs 1 crore in cash was seized.
The agency had also raided the Kolkata premises of a Dubai-based "hawala operator" named Hari Shankar Tibrewal on February 28 claiming he partnered with the promoters of MOB in illegal operations for betting website "skyexchange".
"Tibrewal used Suraj Chokhani to launder and hide proceeds of crime under the guise of share investment for Indian companies. Searches on the premises of Chokhani in Kolkata found that the major source for these investments has been collected by way of receiving bank entries against cash in these companies and utilising the proceeds for investment in share market," the ED said.
As of February 29, the Indian companies under control of associates of Tibrewal held around securities worth Rs 580 crore in stock portfolios and the foreign entities also invested in India via the FPI route and as of the same date, they were found to be holding securities worth Rs 606 crore in stock portfolios, the agency said.
The searches in Kolkata found that Tibrewal was also involved in "manipulation" of the stock market in collusion with the promoters of some listed companies and using his immense capital, he used to create temporary fluctuations in share prices, driving them upwards, and then withdraw funds once the prices reached a desirable level, the ED said.
The agency said it carried out searches in Goa on March 4 against a prominent panel operator who was there for the launch of another betting book (online app). Rs 48 lakh cash was seized from this person, it said.
The ED has alleged in the past that its probe in the 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 MOB app is an umbrella syndicate arranging online platforms for enabling illegal betting websites to enrol new users, create user IDs and laundering of money through a layered web of benami bank accounts.
The ED has filed two charge sheets in this case till now, including against the two main promoters of the app. It had conducted multiple raids in the case earlier.
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