Raipur, Jul 4 (PTI) The Chhattisgarh police have arrested five persons from Maharashtra in connection with their probe into online cricket betting through the Mahadev app and brought them to the state capital Raipur, police said on Thursday.

A team from the anti-crime and cyber units of Raipur police recently arrested them from a residential apartment on the outskirts of Pune, an official said.

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One of them hails from Pune, while the rest are residents of the Bhilai city in Chhattisgarh. They operated through the “Mahadev-Reddy Anna 15 app”, he said.

Police have recovered 56 ATM cards, 47 mobile phones, 35 chequebooks, 20 bank passbooks, seven online betting kits, six laptops and a few other gadgets from the five.

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The five told the police that they had borrowed 50 bank accounts from their acquaintances and others for a commission to channel the money generated through the online cricket betting racket, he said.

The seized laptops and mobile phones point to transactions worth crores of rupees, he said, adding that further investigation is underway.

The multi-billion Mahadev betting app racket came under the scanner in 2022 after the Chhattisgarh police took action against it. Later, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) launched a probe into the app after registering a money laundering case.

The ED has filed two chargesheets in this case in the Raipur court, including one against the two promoters of the alleged illegal betting and gaming app – Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal.

The projected proceeds of crime in this case is about Rs 6,000 crore, according to the ED.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)