New Delhi | The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday arrested Vikas Garg, the chairman of the Ebix Group, in a multi-crore-rupee money-laundering case linked to the Mahadev online betting app, officials said.
They said Garg, 53, was taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after searches were conducted at his premises in Delhi.
He was produced before a special court in Delhi, which granted the central agency 24-hour custody to take him to Raipur in Chhattisgarh, where the investigation is taking place.
Garg is the promoter of three listed (on the share market) entities -- Vikas Ecotech Limited, Vikas Lifecare Limited and Eraaya Lifespaces Limited -- apart from the Ebix Group. According to the ED, he had acquired a 64-per cent stake in EbixCash through Eraaya Lifespaces by "utilising" funds allegedly generated from illegal betting activities.
Last week, the central agency said in a press statement that it has attached assets worth Rs 940.77 crore of Garg, his family members and entities linked to him as part of the investigation.
"The attachment forms part of the ongoing money-laundering investigation in the Mahadev Online Book/Skyexchange illegal online betting case," the ED said.
The agency has alleged that the Mahadev betting app case involves high-ranking politicians and bureaucrats from Chhattisgarh and the proceeds of crime generated in the case stand at Rs 6,000 crore.
It has alleged that the illegal betting operations of Mahadev Online Book and Skyexchange (a Dubai-based exchange) were laundered through a multi-layered structure of accommodation ("hawala") entries arranged against cash through a web of shell entities and other layered transactions.
Investigation has shown that proceeds of crime worth Rs 940.77 crore of the Mahadev Online Book-Skyexchange betting operations were, in this manner, routed into entities owned and "controlled" by Garg.
These funds were utilised for acquiring shares, securities and other assets, the ED has alleged.
According to the agency, the Mahadev Online Betting (MOB) app operated as a large-scale international betting syndicate that facilitated alleged illegal betting through multiple online platforms and domain names, such as "Tiger Exchange", "Gold365" and "Laser247".
The operations were structured through a franchise-based network of "panels" and "branches" operated by associates across India, while the main absconding promoters -- Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal -- operated and controlled the betting syndicate from Dubai, the ED has said.
This is the 14th arrest in the case, which has named 74 entities as accused in the five chargesheets filed so far before a special PMLA court in Raipur.
The agency has also moved a court seeking fugitive economic offender status (under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018) for Chandrakar, Uppal and others named in the case, such as Anil Agrawal alias Atul and Shubham Soni.
