Actor Ranbir Kapoor has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate in a case involving an online gaming app. He has been asked to be at the station on Friday.
Here are 10 points about this developing story:
Ranbir Kapoor appeared in the promotions for Mahadev Online Book App. The ED has claimed that in return he received a large amount of money from the proceeds of crime.
The agency said 12 other actors, from Bollywood and Tollywood, are on the agency’s radar. At least 100 influencers are also under the scanner and all these people may be called up as part of the investigation.
The promoters, Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, are from Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, but the app was managed from the company’s headquarters in the UAE. It has call centers in Sri Lanka, Nepal and the UAE.
The agency alleged that the Mahadev app is part of an umbrella syndicate that organizes online platforms for illegal gambling websites to sign up new users, create user IDs and launder money through a layered web of benami bank accounts.
An ED official said the promoters were operating four to five such apps, which were generating a profit of Rs 200 crore every day.
Last month, the agency had conducted searches in the money laundering networks linked to the Mahadev app in Calcutta, Bhopal and Mumbai, among others, and recovered incriminating evidence. It had also frozen or seized proceeds of crime worth Rs 417 crore.
A statement from the agency last month said Chandrakar and Uppal have “created an empire for themselves in the UAE” and flaunted their illicit wealth.
Chandrakar got married in February in Ras Al Khaimah, a city in UAE, and Rs 200 crore cash was spent on the wedding. Private jets were hired to ferry relatives from Nagpur to the UAE and celebrities were paid to make appearances.
The statement said that Rs 112 crore was supplied through Hawala channels to an event management company – M/s R-1 Events Pvt Ltd – and Rs 42 crore was paid in cash for hotel bookings.
There is no confirmation yet whether Ranbir Kapoor himself will appear at the ED office on Friday or send a representative.
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