The Chhattisgarh police have arrested 14 persons from several states for allegedly accepting bets on the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) matches through the Mahadev betting app, an official said.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is already investigating the Mahadev app betting scam in Chhattisgarh.
Of the 14 arrested, six hail from Chhattisgarh, three from Jharkhand, two from Madhya Pradesh and one each from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Raipur Range Inspector General of Police Amresh Mishra said on Wednesday.
Eight of them were nabbed from Kolkata and six from Guwahati, he said.
They were apprehended based on a statement of one Nikhil Wadhwani, who was arrested on April 13, for accepting online bets on IPL matches, the official said.
The police seized 67 mobile phones, eight laptops, four routers, 94 ATM cards, 15 SIM cards, 32 bank passbooks, three bank cheque books, a security camera and betting transaction records of Rs 30 lakh from them, he said.
The accused were accepting bets through the panels of the Mahadev betting app named L95 Lotus, Lotus 651 and LOTUS 656, he said.
After the arrest, the accused told the police that they bought the panels for prices between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 25 lakh, the official said.
“The accused have made transactions of crores of rupees through 500 bank accounts and we will soon approach the related banks to freeze these accounts,” he said.
In the 17 betting cases concerning the ongoing IPL season, 41 persons have been nabbed for operating through apps, IDs, panels and links named “Gajanand app, Mr bean, Winpro-in, Diamond999-com, Wood777, Classic99-com, Funapp, Vazircom, Unclebet9com, Kingdombook9com, Shubhlabh app, Gold363 app via Mahadeo panels,” the official said.
Also, letters have been written to banks to freeze more than 1,500 accounts through which the accused made transactions for betting, he added.
Published – April 17, 2025 08:43 am IST
