Mahadev Betting App Scam: CBI Raids Premises Of Ex-Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, OSDs, IAS, 4IPS

Raipur: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has conducted massive raids at 60 locations in four states including Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Bhopal and Kolkata in Mahadev Satta online betting app. In Chhattisgarh CBI carried out raids at the residential and official premises of former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, his two close then Official on Duty (OSD)s Ashish Verma and Manish Banchor, his secretary Soumya Chaurasia, MLA Devendra Yadav, retired IAS Anil Tuteja and 4 IPS officers Anand Chhabra, Abhishek Pallav, Arif Sheikh, Prashant Agarwal.

The CBI teams also conducted raids on the premises of ASP Sanjay Dhruv and two constables Nakul-Sahdev.

As per the information received, CBI teams have conducted raids in Raipur, Durg and Bhilai.

CBI carried out a search operation at the house of former CM Baghel in the early morning hours on Wednesday. In carrying out raid at Bhupesh Baghel residence in Bhilai-3 Padum Nagar four teams were engaged.

The central investigating agency team also conducted raids at the house of MLA Devendra Yadav's house situated in Sector 5 Bhilai, IPS Abhishek Pallav's residence in Sector 9 and the house of constables Nakul and Sahdev in Nehru Nagar. Both the constables were accused of actively helping Mahadev Satta.

The other people whose houses were raided in Raipur are Havildar Radhakant Pandey and Sandeep Dixit, TI Girish Tiwari, former OSD Ashish Verma, KPS School Director Nishant Tripathi.

CBI confirmed the raids in an official statement released on Wednesday and confirmed the raids were conducted in 60 locations in the Country.

During the raids, the supporters of Congres Party and Bhupesh Baghel protested in-front of the house of the ex-CM Baghel and Devendra Yadav. A minor scuffle has been reported occurred between the supporters and security forces. During the raids, the mother of Devendra Yadav questioned the action taken by CBI.

At the time raids were conducted, MLA Devendra Yadav was reportedly out of town and was in Delhi. Meanwhile the ex-CM Bhupesh Baghel spotted smiling. Whereas his office said, the raids were conducted to intimidate Baghel when it was known that he was preparing to participate in the National Convention of AICC scheduled in Ahmedabad in the coming month.

Notably, it has been alleged that the Mahadev Book Online Betting App is a scam, run by Dubai-based promoters Ravi Uppal and Saurabh Chandrakar, allegedly involving large payouts to public servants as "security money" to ensure the illegal betting network's smooth operation. Initially investigated by Raipur’s Economic Offenses Wing (EOW), the case was later handed over to the CBI for a deeper probe into senior officials' involvement.

Reaction on Raids

On the CBI raids, Opposition leaders gave strong reaction, Congress party officially condemned the action and said, the raids are politically motivated. 15 days ago, ED conducted raids and now CBI, the action indicates that raids are biased and conducted to harass the opposition leaders, Congress State President Dipak Baij said.

The raids are politically motivated and conducted to defame former CM Bhupesh Baghel, TS Singh Deo, former Deputy CM.

Meanwhile on the raids, BJP and its ministers also gave sharp reactions. CBI has been handed over several cases, in which case the investigating agency conducted raids will be known later, Vijay Sharma, Deputy CM cum Home Minister.

While supporting the stand of Vijay Sharma, DyCM Arun Sao said, the raids are part of the investigation.