Delhi. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the Mahadev Online Book (MOB) money laundering case, has identified more than 30 Bollywood stars, including several celebrities, who were involved in fraud in the case of company promoters in the UAE in September last year and February this year. Took part in two events.
According to ED sources, the agency issued fresh summons to MOB promoters Saurabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, who are said to be in Dubai, UAE, on the same day it issued summons to comedian Kapil Sharma, actresses Huma Qureshi and Heena. Summons were issued to Khan for questioning. ED has also called Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor for questioning.
The source said more than 30 celebrities, including those from Bollywood, television industry and South film industry, are likely to be summoned as witnesses to record their statements.
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The source said many of them had attended MOB’s success party in September last year, while several others had attended Chandrakar’s wedding party in Dubai in February this year.
The source said that these celebrities will be asked about the alleged payments given to them for attending an event organized in a hotel in Dubai in September 2022.
The source said that after recording the statements of the celebrities who attended MOB events in the UAE, the agency will verify their claims to decide whether it needs to proceed against them or not.
The source said that during the investigation, the agency has identified a group of three to four celebrities who were attending events, promoting their mobile gaming applications and also endorsing their products.
The source said the financial probe agency had recovered payment and transport details of the hotels during searches conducted last month.
It is alleged that MOB spent around Rs 200 crore on a marriage ceremony program in Dubai, including hiring private jets to fly family members from Nagpur to UAE.
The ED investigation also found that celebrities were hired to perform at the wedding. Wedding planners, dancers, decorators etc. were hired from Mumbai and hawala channels were used to make cash payments.
The ED said that as per the digital evidence collected by them, Rs 112 crore was transferred through hawala to Yogesh Popat’s event management company R-1 Events Pvt Ltd and hotel bookings worth Rs 42 crore were made by making cash payments in AED. It also said that during the search of the premises of Popat, Mithilesh and other associated organizers, evidence related to receipt of hawala money of Rs 112 crore came to light.
ED has also successfully identified other key players involved in the money laundering operation of MOB App.
“It was found that Kolkata-based Vikas Chhaparia was handling all hawala-related operations for the Mahadev app,” the agency said.
The ED conducted searches at his known premises and those of his associates like Govid Kedia, where it was found that with the help of Kedia, Chaparia was involved in foreign portfolio investment (FPI) through his entities Perfect Plan Investments LLP, Exim General Trading FZCO and Techpro IT Solutions LLC. ) route and were investing heavily in the Indian stock market.
Kedia’s demat holdings worth Rs 160 crore have also been seized by the ED, the agency said.
The ED is investigating MOB Betting App, an online platform that enables illegal betting websites to enroll new users, create user IDs and launder money through a layered web of anonymous bank accounts. Major syndicate.
On September 15, ED had said that it had seized Rs 417 crore after searches in Kolkata, Bhopal, Mumbai in connection with the case.
In a statement, the financial probe agency had said that the ED recently conducted extensive searches against the money laundering network linked to Mahadev App in cities like Kolkata, Bhopal, Mumbai etc and recovered huge amount of incriminating evidence and recovered Rs 417 crore of crime. Income is frozen or confiscated.
