Actor Sahil Khan arrested from Chhattisgarh in Mahadev betting app case
Mumbai: Mumbai Cyber Cell’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) has arrested Bollywood actor Sahil Khan from Chhattisgarh in the Mahadev betting app case.
The High Court had refused to grant anticipatory bail to Khan on charges of promoting and circulating Mahadev betting app. After 40 hours of effort, the police caught the actor from Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh. The court has ordered to keep him in police custody till May 1.
Police caught Sahil from Chhattisgarh and brought him to Mumbai today. He was then interrogated and taken to the hospital for medical examination. Later the police presented him in the court and took other necessary action related to the case.
It is being told that Sahil has earned huge profits through betting app. Actor Sahil Khan, who rose to fame with ‘Style’ and ‘Excuse Me’, became a fitness expert after not getting much success in Bollywood.
Matunga police registered a case against Khan and 31 accused in the Mahadev online gaming-betting app case. According to the FIR registered in this case, this scam is worth about Rs 15 thousand crores. Mumbai Police had earlier arrested a person in this case.
The Special Investigation Team is probing alleged illegal transactions between the promoters of Mahadev Sattabaazi app and some financial and real estate companies of the state.
Actor Khan is associated with The Lion Book app and is said to be a part of the Mahadev betting app network.
After receiving information about Sahil’s involvement in the racket, the SIT formed in connection with the case had recently interrogated the actor. Investigation is going on against Khan and 31 others. According to the police, his bank account, mobile phone, laptop and all technical devices are being examined in the investigation.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating the money laundering angle in the case. ED has so far arrested nine people as part of the investigation.
It is noteworthy that Chhattisgarh’s Anti-Corruption Bureau-Economic Offenses Wing had said on April 24 that they have arrested two people from New Delhi and Goa in the Mahadev betting app case.
After the anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the High Court, Sahil Khan changed his identity in a private vehicle and reached Chhattisgarh via Gadchiroli from Mumbai, Goa, Karnataka and Hyderabad. A team of Mumbai Police was chasing him. In this way, after about 40 hours of investigation, Sahil was arrested from Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh.
67 betting websites were linked to this app. All were operated from abroad. More than two thousand fake SIM cards were used for that.
Common people were lured to win money by betting on various sports. Similarly, more than 1700 bank accounts opened on the basis of fake documents were used to withdraw money. This money was sent through Hawala and crypto currency.
Actress Tamannaah Bhatia has recently been summoned in connection with the promotion of a subsidiary app of Mahadev Sattabaazi app. Apart from this, Sanjay Dutt also asked for a few days’ time to appear for questioning in the case. Till now the involvement of many celebrities has come to light in this case.
Mahadev online betting app was operated by Saurabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal from Dubai. Both of them are originally residents of Bhilai, Chhattisgarh.
Investigation by the Enforcement Directorate has revealed that this app is run from the central head office of UAE.
Both the accused had connections with police and politicians. It is said that regular payments have been made to keep the app away from the radar of security agencies.
