CBI names Baghel as accused in FIR in Mahadev app case

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday made its first information report (FIR) in connection with the ₹6,000 crore Mahadev online betting app scandal public and revealed that it named former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel as an accused.

The development came a week after the agency raided 60 locations in four states, including the residences of Baghel as well as the premises of some bureaucrats and senior police officers, as part of its probe in the corruption case.

“The promoters of Mahadev Book App paid huge amounts of protection money to various police officers, administrative officers and influential political persons to stop police from taking any action on their illegal activities. This money used to reach the police and administrative officers through hawala operators, and then further to other senior police officers and influential political persons. This way, several police and administrative officers misused their official position to benefit themselves in the form of protection money and create illegal assets,” the FIR said..

To be sure, the agency had filed the FIR in the matter on December 18, 2024 and HT was the first to report on January 21 this year that CBI named Baghel as an accused after taking over the case from Chhattisgarh police.

Reacting to the development, Baghel said, “I don’t know about the CBI FIR till now... I will respond only when I get the details of FIR.”

Overall, 18 people were named in the CBI FIR, including the alleged promoters of Mahadev app - Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal.

Baghel was named as an accused along with Chandrakar and Uppal, the fugitive founders of Mahadev whose extraditions are being pursued in the UAE, in an FIR filed by the Chhattisgarh Police on March 4, 2024.The state government recommended CBI probe in the case in August 2024, roughly nine months after the BJP came to power, displacing the Congress.

Between August 2024 and January 2025, CBI studied around 77 FIRs filed by Chhattisgarh police, including an FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in Raipur, naming Baghel as accused.

CBI took over the EOW FIR. It usually re-registers the cases after taking over from the state police.

Baghel has previously said his name was “forcefully” added to the case by the ruling BJP.

The Enforcement Directorate, which is conducting a parallel money laundering probe in the matter, has alleged that Chandrakar and Uppal paid bribes to the tune of ₹508 crore to Baghel. The FIR by the state police naming the former CM was, in fact, filed on the reference by ED.

ED has claimed that the Mahadev online betting app syndicate — which started in 2018 and saw Chandrakar and Uppal remotely run illegal betting operations, with the proceeds of crimes running into several thousand crores — allowed people to put illegal bets on live games such as poker, card games, chance games, matches of cricket, badminton, tennis and football, and even allowed access to apps to place bets on elections in India.

ED said in one of its two charge sheets filed so far in the case that the “betting empire” was operating more than 3,200 (betting) panels in different cities, which generate around ₹240 crore per day. The promoters of Mahadev app had rented 20 villas in Dubai to accommodate its staff comprising 3,500 persons, it added.

It has estimated proceeds of crime in the case worth about ₹6,000 crore, out of which assets worth ₹2,426 crore have been attached, seized or frozen under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

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