Photo: Pulakit Singh / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sourabh Chandrakar, one of the promoters of the Mahadev Online Book betting app and described by investigators as a kingpin of the alleged ₹6,000-crore illegal betting operation, has been extradited to India from Oman, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said on Sunday, November 1. A specially deputed CBI team travelled to Muscat, took him into custody and escorted him back to Delhi, where he was brought to the agency’s headquarters on Sunday evening.
According to the agency, Chandrakar will undergo a medical examination and, once a transit remand is secured, will be taken to Raipur. He is due to be produced before the CBI Special Judge there on Monday, November 2.
Months of extradition effort
Chandrakar, who hails from Chhattisgarh’s Durg district, was traced to Oman some months ago. After an Interpol Red Corner Notice was issued against him, the Royal Oman Police located and detained him. The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) then sent formal extradition requests to Omani authorities along with the evidence they had gathered, and the process was pursued with other central agencies and India’s Interpol National Central Bureau, officials said.
The CBI thanked the government of Oman and the Royal Oman Police for their cooperation, calling the extradition a significant milestone in India’s effort to bring back fugitives who run transnational criminal operations against Indian citizens from abroad.
The accused will be medically examined and taken to Raipur after obtaining a transit remand.
CBI official
What the agencies allege
The Mahadev Online Book cases were handed to the CBI in 2024 at the request of the Chhattisgarh government, while the ED has been looking into the money-laundering side. Investigators describe the operation as one of the largest illegal online betting networks in the country, run from outside India.
According to the CBI, the syndicate took bets on cricket, football, card games and other events through a network of franchised “panels” and “branches” across India that signed up users and collected their stakes. The agency alleges that the money was moved through a large number of mule bank accounts, layered through repeated transactions and sent abroad through hawala channels, and that part of it was paid as protection money to public servants so the network could operate without interference.
- Chandrakar is wanted in two CBI cases in which chargesheets have already been filed.
- The chargesheets invoke the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, Indian Penal Code provisions on criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery, and the Chhattisgarh Gambling (Prohibition) Act.
- He is also an accused in an ED case in which a prosecution complaint has been filed and properties in India and abroad have been attached.
What happens next
The immediate step is Monday’s appearance before the special court in Raipur, where proceedings in the CBI cases against him will now move forward with the accused in Indian custody. Until now, investigators had pursued the cases while one of the men they accuse of running the network was abroad. The separate ED case, in which a prosecution complaint has already been filed, is also pending against him.
