Following the ED raids leading to arrests in the Mahadev Book case in Chhattisgarh, the major opposition party has launched an attack on the Congress-led state government. BJP State General Secretary, OP Chaudhary, has claimed that there is a possibility of terrorist funding through online betting, and so CM Bhupesh Baghel should take responsibility and get the matter investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Congress spokesperson Dhananjay Singh Thakur, however, came in support of CM Baghel, saying that the allegations made by Chowdhary are pretty serious and the BJP-led Central Government has instead proved to be incompetent and unsuccessful in providing security to the country, Amar Ujala reported.

The ED revealed yesterday that they have arrested CM Baghel’s political advisor Vinod Verma, ASI Chandrabhushan Verma, Satish Chandrakar and hawala operators Anil Damani and Sunil Damani.

With these recent arrests and revelation of involvement of police officers, questions are now being raised about the integrity of the state government. ED, in its charge sheet, wrote that these officials were providing protection to people operating the Mahadev Book illegal betting app.

Notably, CM Baghel’s political advisor Vinod Verma has challenged the ED to present evidence of his involvement in the case. Meanwhile, the investigation has revealed that ASI Chandrabhushan Verma was receiving Rs 65 crore as bribe every month which he used to distribute among other senior officers who were involved after keeping his cut.

Due to these internal arrangements, it is believed that the work of the police was vastly affected in the case, and despite making so many arrests and putting several hideouts out of operation, the illegal betting activity was still rampant.

As of now, the ED is investigating ASI Verma, along with Satish Chandrakar who is a close relative of the mastermind Saurabh Chandrakar, currently hiding in Dubai and managing all the operations from there.