Chhattisgarh Police has successfully arrested as many as five individuals in multiple raids for taking bets on IPL matches using the Mahadev Book illegal betting app in Kanker region of the state. During the raid, police seized personal mobile phones and Rs 3.5 lakh in cash.

According to Additional SP Avinash Thakur, two of these individuals named Omkar Netam and Ankush Sathwane were taking bets during the raid, while the other three were arrested a day before.

During further interrogation of the most recent arrest, the two arrested individuals revealed several IPL betting transactions worth over Rs 2 crore. The police also discovered online betting IDs from the mobiles that were seized during the bust.

The IDs were being generated after sending money to an account of one account of Khaiwal Harshada Shubham. Police further discovered transactions worth Rs 83 lakh in Shubham’s account during the latest IPL season.

At the moment, it seems most of the money have been transferred, and currently the account is only left with Rs 96 thousand. Police have blocked further transactions from the account.

The Chhattisgarh police have already been working to shut down these illegal betting rings and have previously busted numerous outlets for their operations. Most notably, the Prevention of Crime Branch (PCB) and Durg Police is working to take down these illegal bookies.

Durg police recently arrested an individual that was allegedly managing numerous transactions from bank accounts for Mahadev Book betting app. The individual used to make dummy bank accounts using Aadhaar ID from people.

Recently, the government banned the official website of Mahadev Book in India, but it seems that the operations are still going on through calling and messaging applications.