Mahadev app case: ED's multi-state searches at EaseMyTrip office, other firms

The ED raids were in connection with a money laundering case involving hawala operator Hari Shankar Tibrewal, who is accused of routing illegal betting proceeds through foreign investments and stock market layering.

(News Agency) -The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday conducted multi-state searches, including at the premises of EaseMyTrip founder Nishant Pitti, in connection with the Mahadev online betting app-linked money laundering case.
Apart from EaseMyTrip, the searches were conducted at the offices of Industrialist Investment Trust Ltd, JTL, Vikas Ecotec and a few other listed companies since morning. The searches were held in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Indore, Jaipur, Chennai and Sambalpur in Odisha.
In a statement, an EaseMyTrip spokesperson said the company had no direct or indirect association with the Mahadev betting app case or any other betting platform, and stressed it would cooperate with authorities in the investigation.
"As per information available in the public domain, the ED conducted searches at over 50 locations of various persons/corporates. Amongst them one was EaseMyTrip premises. While EaseMyTrip has no direct or indirect association with the Mahadev betting app or any other betting platform, we remain fully committed to cooperating with the authorities throughout the course of the investigation," the spokesperson said.
Sources said the searches were linked to investments made by Hari Shankar Tibrewal, an accused in the Mahadev betting app money laundering case. His investments in the stocks of various companies were under scrutiny, some of which were covered during the raids.
In the course of the investigation, the ED successfully identified other major players involved with the promoters of Mahadev Online Book. It was found that Tibrewal, who belongs to Kolkata but currently resides in Dubai, is a huge hawala operator and has partnered with the promoters of the betting app, according to the officers.
The ED had conducted searches at the premises of Tibrewal and his associates, revealing that he owned and operated one of the illegal betting websites, Skyexchange. Through his Dubai-based entities, he was investing the betting proceeds in the Indian stock market via the Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) route.
Tibrewal had also employed many of his associates as a director in various companies that were involved in the layering of the betting proceeds by investing them in the stock market, the probe has found.
Security holdings worth Rs 580.78 crore in the name of the entities beneficially owned Tibrewal were frozen by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
In March last year, the ED conducted searches in Kolkata, Mumbai, Indore, Delhi and Raipur and made huge seizures of cash and froze demat accounts and other benami accounts with hundreds of crores worth of investments. These accounts were linked to a third promoter of the Mahadev Online Book, Tibrewal.

Earlier, the names of two promoters from Chhattisgarh -- Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal -- had come to light.

The Mahadev betting app case made headlines after the ED claimed a few years back that many high-ranking politicians and bureaucrats from Chhattisgarh were alleged to have been involved in the illegal operation and subsequent monetary transactions linked to the app.

The ED has alleged in the past that its probe in the case has shown the involvement of various high-ranking politicians and bureaucrats from Chhattisgarh.

It said the app was an umbrella syndicate arranging online platforms for enabling illegal betting websites to enroll new users, create user IDs and laundering of money through a layered web of benami bank accounts.