Produced by: Hitansh Gaur
Designed by: Manoj Kumar
Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on October 6 in connection with the Mahadev Book online betting case. The agency is investigating the involvement of several Bollywood actors and singers in the case.
Ranbir Kapoor allegedly promoted a subsidiary app, which was also backed by the promoters of Mahadev app, and took the payment for promotions in cash, as per sources.
Mahadev Book app is an online betting platform, which is being investigated by ED and police departments of numerous states. The company was allegedly using the online book betting application to enrol new users, create user IDs and launder money through a layered web of benami bank accounts.
The ED is also investigating several celebrities for their attendance at the wedding of the app’s promoter, Sourabh Chandrakar, which took place in UAE earlier in February. Leaked photos show Vishal Dadlani and Neha Kakkar performing at the wedding.
According to India Today, the celebrities were invited to the wedding in exchange of a fee which was paid by a Mumbai-based event management company. But the money, which amounted to Rs 112 crore, was sent to the event company via Hawala. Apart from that, Rs 42 crore was paid in cash for hotel bookings and private planes used to ferry family members from Nagpur.
Apart from Kapoor, other Bollywood actors expected to be summoned by ED are Tiger Shroff, Vishal Dadlani, Neha Kakkar, Elli Avram, Bharti Singh, Sunny Leone, Bhagyashree, Pulkit Samrat, Kriti Kharbanda, Nushrat Bharucha and Krishna Abhishek.
The online betting platform was run by Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal. The duo has amassed a fortune of Rs 6,000 crore through the Mahadev Book app.
Earlier, last month ED conducted raids on the money laundering networks across the country while also seizing assets worth Rs 417 crore connected to Mahadev Book app promoters.
Apart from Sourabh Chandrakar’s lavish wedding, the ED is also investigating the success party which was hosted by Ravi Uppal in September last year. Several Bollywood celebs attended the function and in a similar pattern regarding payments for the wedding, they allegedly received payments from the same event management firm via hawala.