Mahadev Betting App Case: Masterminds Among 94 Granted Bail

A major update in the Mahadev Betting App case: the Khed sessions court on Thursday granted bail to the 94 accused, including the masterminds Hrithvik Kothari (24) and Raj Bokaria (28). All accused were arrested for offences punishable as cheating, criminal breach of trust, and forgery, as well as offences under the Gambling Act. However, the prima facie case against the accused couldn’t be established, and therefore, the Hon’ble Session Court considered the bail application of the 94 accused involved in the Mahadev Betting and Lotus 365 betting app case.

The Pune Rural Police had arrested 96 accused in a raid conducted on a fake call centre operated at Narayangaon in the Pune district in May 2024. The police unearthed an illegal betting den operated under the guise of a BPO setup. According to the police, the accused allegedly procured the building on rent by informing the owner that they would be operating an IT-BPO company in it. The accused allegedly set up a centre for accepting and processing payments to the punters who were playing on Mahadev and Lotus 365 betting apps. The accused used more than 450 bank accounts registered under various names operated as money mules.

The accused had 91 phones with fraudulent SIM cards used to process payments.

The Pune Rural Police had arrested 93 accused, and three minors were detained in the Mahadev app and Lotus 365 betting app case. The police had seized 45 laptops, 89 mobile phones, 101 personal mobile phones used by the accused, 452 bank passbooks, chequebooks of various banks all over the country, and tables, chairs, and other materials worth a total of Rs 62 lakh 74 thousand and 500 used by the accused in the crime.

An FIR was filed under sections 420, 464, 465, 467, 468, and 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 4 and 5 of the Gambling Act, including section 66 of the IT Act.

The FIR further stated that the accused Raj Bokaria and Hrithvik Kothari supplied these accounts, including passbooks, chequebooks, debit cards, and SIM cards of various account holders, to the accused. The duo provided instructions to the other accused to transfer the funds from the HDFC Bank account to various bank accounts.

An accused named Salman was actively managing the illegal betting application and, for this purpose, recruited the other accused, making arrangements for their accommodation and food. All the accused conspired to acquire financial benefits from the Mahadev Betting App.

This bank account information was allegedly shared to help with the money transfers required to play the games. The accused gave the consumers instructions, and they carried them out by transferring the necessary amounts through UPI transactions.

The accused have been operating the gambling den under the guise of a BPO since February 2024 in two shifts. The police claimed that the punters who wished to use the Mahadev betting app downloaded a link from Google which directed them to a WhatsApp number. The arrested accused used to provide information to the punters on their WhatsApp numbers, and the payments were also processed on WhatsApp. The payment link belonged to an individual and not a payment gateway or direct Mahadev Book payment link.