Actors Ranbir Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor have been asked to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) today in a case involving a gaming app. They are among the stars who are set to be questioned over the Mahadev app that allegedly provides a platform for illegal betting.
Ranbir Kapoor has requested two weeks’ time to appear before the central agency that probes financial frauds. It is not known if Shraddha Kapoor will appear before them today.
Comedian-actor Kapil Sharma and actors Huma Qureshi and Hina Khan too have been summoned in the Mahadev app case on different dates, sources said yesterday.
The celebrities are not named as accused in the case, but will be questioned over what they know about the mode and flow of payment allegedly done to them by the app’s promoters.
Ranbir Kapoor has done several ads promoting the Mahdev app and received a large amount of money that was from the proceeds of a crime, the agency has claimed.
Charges Against Mahadev App
The Mahadev app is an umbrella syndicate that provides online platforms to illegal betting websites to enrol new users, create user IDs and laundering of money through a layered web of benami bank accounts, the ED has alleged.
The latest online gaming rules prohibit betting.
The company’s promoters, Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, are from Bhilai in Chhattisgarh and run their operations from Dubai. They operate four-five such apps and made around Rs 200 crore per day, the probe agency claimed.
They do large expenditures in cash in India for advertising of betting websites to attract new users and franchise seekers, the ED said.
Last month, assets worth Rs 417 crore were seized during raids at 39 locations in Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bhopal in connection with the Mahadev betting app.
Chandrakar’s Rs 200-crore February wedding in the UAE, entirely paid in cash, had brought the Mahadev app under the ED scanner.
