A group of seven men controlled the allegedly illegal operations of the Mahadev Online Book (MOB), according to an Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer close to the investigation.
Until recently it was believed that two men, Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal were the masterminds. Now, ED has named a German national Lark Marshall and four Indians, Ratan Lal Jain, Hari Shankar Tibrewal, Girish Talreja and Shubham Soni aka Pintu Bhaiyya, in addition to Uppal and Chandrakar as the app’s brains trust.
According to the ongoing investigation the group if five paid Rs 76 lakh to lower-rung operatives cited as witnesses by the investigating agencies to keep their names out of the investigation. ED officials allege that while Lark Marshall designed the betting app, the daily operations, revenue generation and transactions, and further investment of the profits generated from the illegal betting activities was controlled by the six Indians. ED is also believed to have learnt that MOB’s top-tier orchestrated a campaign among MOB branch operators in India to put the entire blame on Chandrakar and Uppal if questioned by investigating agencies; a probe into the operation began in 2022.