1 2025:CGHC:4840 NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR MCRC No. 8625 of 2024 Order reserved on 20/01/2025 Order delivered on 27/01/2025 1 - Bharatjyoti @ Guru @ Bhaskar S/o Shri Pradeep Kumar Pandey Aged About 35 Years R/o- Mangitpur, Post- Sohgi, P.S.- Nasriganj, District- Rohtas (Bihar) Present R/o. D Block-404, Asoka Ratan, Shankar Nagar, Raipur, Tehsil And District Raipur (Chhattisgarh) (Present Address Wrongly Not Mentioned In The Impugned Order) 2 - Vishwajeet Rai Choudhary S/o Shri P.B. Rai Choudhary Aged About 33 Years R/o- House No. 151, Bengali Colony, New Khursipar, Bhilai District Durg 3 - Atul Singh S/o Shri Pushparaj Singh Aged About 35 Years Present R/o- House No. 3120, Jawahar Nagar, Ward No. 14, Bhilai District- Durg, Permanent R/o - House No. 5, Near Deepak Nursing Home, Sirmore Chauraha, Murlidhar Colony, Police Station- Civil Lines, District- Rewa (M.P.) (Name Of The Applicants Are Not Mentioned In The Cause Title Of The Impugned Order.) ... Applicants versus State Of Chhattisgarh Through- Station House Officer, Police Station- Eow/acb Raipur, District Raipur (Chhattisgarh) ... Respondent (Cause title taken from Case Information System) Digitally signed by VEDPRAKASH DEWANGAN 2 For Applicants : Mr. Prasoon Agrawal, Advocate For Respondent/State : Dr. Saurabh Kumar Pande, Dy. A.G. Hon'ble Shri Justice Ravind ra Kumar Agrawal C.A.V. Order 1. This is the first bail application filed by the applicants under Section 483 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 for grant of regular bail to the applicants, who have been arrested on 07.08.2024 for the offence under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 201, 120-B of IPC, Sections 7 and 7A of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 and Sections 4, 7, 8 and 11 of the Chhattisgarh Gambling (Prohibition) Act, 2022 and Section 4A of Public Gambling Act, registered at Economic Offence Wing/Anti- Corruption Bureau, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, in Crime No. 6 of 2024. 2. The prosecution case in brief is that, an FIR of Crime No. 112/2022 registered on 29.07.2022 at Police Station Mohan Nagar, Durg (C.G.) under Section 4A of the Public Gambling (C.G. Amendment) Act, 1976, which was registered against five accused persons, namely, Alok Singh Rajput, Rampravesh Sahu, Kharag @ Raja Singh, Abhishek and Pintu, under Section 4A of the Public Gambling (C.G. Amendment) Act, 1976 and Section 420, 120B of the IPC and also for Section 66D of Information Technology Act, 2000. The Enforcement Directorate had registered the Enforcement Case Information Report (hereinafter referred as 'ECIR') No. RPZ0/10/2022. On the secret information gathered by the officers of the ED, the raid was conducted on the premises of the accused persons in which it was found that a set with a 3 laptop and they were collecting money by creating online IDs and through the said IDs they were placing bets for others through Mahadev Book, on Online cricket matches, horse racing, greyhound racing, kabaddi etc. Upon interrogation, the accused persons disclosed the names of two persons namely Abhishek and Pintu who taught them to procedure of creating the IDs and placing bets in various sports through the Mahadev Book. Initially, treating the FIR No. 112/2022 of P.S. Mohan Nagar, Durg and final report dated 29.07.2022 as scheduled/ predicate offence, the respondent ED registered the ECIR No. RPZO/09/2022 which was renumbered as ECIR No. RPZ0/10/2022 vide corrigendum dated 07.11.2022 issued by the ED. *******In the said ECIR, FIR No. 206/2023 dated 02.06.2023 registered at P.S. Cyber Crime Vishakhapatnam Commissionerate, Andhra Pradesh, FIR No. 37/2023 registered at P.S. Bhilai Bhatti, District Durg (C.G.), FIR No. 86/2023 dated 27.02.2023 registered at P.S. Chhawani, District Durg (C.G.), FIR No. 336/2023 dated 10.08.2023 registered at P.S. Gudhiyari, District Raipur (C.G.), FIR No. 685/2023 dated 11.08.2023 registered at P.S. Khamtarai, District Raipur (C.G.), FIR No. 6/2024 dated 04.03.2024 registered at EOW, Raipur (C.G.) and FIR No. 206/2020 dated 24.09.2020 registered at P.S. Burtola, Kolkata, West Bengal, have been included in the said ECIR. *******On 20.10.2023, the ED filed its first prosecution complaint against 14 accused persons, alleging that the online gambling app in the name of Mahadev Online Book is established for illegal betting in different live games like; poker, card games, chance games, betting on cricket, 4 badminton, tennis, football, etc. and also to provide facility for playing several card games like; teen patti, dragon tiger, virtual cricket games using cards, etc. It is also alleged that the Mahadev Online Book advertised about these betting websites through closed WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages. *******During the investigation conducted by the ED, it comes in the investigation that the promoters of the Mahadev Online Book, namely Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, were running the said illegal betting app through online mode and the tentacles of the online betting app have been spread wide enough and the promoters created a system of franchising the panels for illegal online betting app within the Indian territory as well as at abroad. The betting app is operated by various panel/branches, which are sold in a small franchise by the promoters Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal through their associates. An elaborate system to receive incoming money from the betting user and also to pay them back as winning amount has been created in a well planned manner. They created a system that the betting user cannot directly pay money on the website and they need to contact on WhatsApp and deposit money into bank accounts in India, which have been obtained by the panel operators/promoters by way of deceiving and cheating the peoples. All centres will tag him with a panel, which will share the bank account details and create the user ID, allocate points/tokens etc. The promoters keep nearly 70-75% of the profit of the panel operations. A panel has an owner and workers who are usually four in numbers. One person can own multiple panels and there was no bar on number of panels being operated by one person. The head office 5 is at Dubai who creates ID and password for the panel owners. The panel operator using the IDs can further create sub-IDs for player/punters. The IDs are generally created on multiple websites as depicted on the app of Mahadev online book. After receiving the details of panel, the players/punters deposit the minimum amount of Rs.100/- for online betting with no maximum amount. All the games are rigged in a manner that overall, the panel owners will not lose money. During the investigation, multiple panel operators were raided, who were working under the Mahadev online book and it came on record that the said betting syndicate was generating proceeds of crime worth Rs.450 crores per month through the panel operations. It also came in the investigation that Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal in the entire investigation to be the kingpin of the betting empire and indulge in money laundering with their associates. In the investigation, it also come that the said panel operations was running with active support and connivance of local police and politicians and after receiving illegal gratification, they supported the said illegal betting racket by closing their eyes. It also come that one ASI Chandrabhushan Verma who acted as Liaisoner for the Mahadev online book promoters with political executives of the Chhattisgarh State, who negotiated between them. He was collecting Hawala payments made available by the promoters of Mahadev book and distributing the same to the bureaucrats/politicians for ensuring smooth operations of the illegal betting websites. The funds have moved in and out of India to Dubai through various channels. Involvement of a number of persons were found during the investigation including the persons who engaged in layering the proceeds of crime. 6 *******The ED, during the investigation also caught hold the Hawala kings namely Anil Kumar Dammani and Sunil Kumar Dammani. The proceeds of crime generated by the main promoters are being layered and invested in order to acquire assets abroad. Large expenditure in cash is also being done in India for advertising the betting websites to attract new users and franchises. During the investigation, raids/searches were conducted at various places through which the associates of promoters of Mahadev online book, individuals associated with them, event organizers, panel operators working on commission basis for Mahadev online book, family of the promoters of Mahadev online book, Hawala operators. A huge amount was seized and frozen during the searches. *******During the investigation, it is also unveiled that ASI Chandrabhushan Verma was having role of Chief Liaisoner for Mahadev betting app in Chhattisgarh, Satish Chandrakar was operating Mahadev panel and distributing funds at the behest of Ravi Uppal, Anil Dammani and Sunil Dammani were knowingly distributing funds for Mahadev betting app, Bheem Singh and Aseem Das were involved in delivery of the Liaisoning money, Nitin Tibrewal was engaged in layering the proceeds of crime through his foreign entities and generation of illegal betting earning through sky exchange, Amit Agrawal for layering the betting earning in land transaction and Nitish Diwan for being involved in the betting operations and assisting the main promoters of Mahadev online book in their money laundering activities. 7 *******On 01.03.2024, the Enforcement Directorate have shared the information to the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Economic Offence Wing and Anti-Corruption Bureau, Raipur, Chhattisgarh under the provisions of Section 66(2) of the PMLA-2002 and disclosed the information about the ECIR No. RPZO/10/2022 and subsequent complaint filed by it. In the said information, it has been disclosed that the Mahadev online book has been running for illegal betting in different live games like poker, card games, etc. and the promoters of the Mahadev online betting app is regulating the said app from its head office at Dubai. The promoters have given franchisee of the said online betting app to various panel operators to manage the business on day- to-day basis. Along with the information, the ED annexed the documents available to them with respect to the involvement of the accused persons in the Mahadev online betting app. *******On the basis of letter dated 01.03.2024, the EOW/ACB registered an FIR under the Crime No. 6/2024 on 04.03.2024 for the offence under Sections 120-B, 34, 406, 420, 467, 468, 471 of IPC, Sections 7 and 11 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended by amendment of the year 2018), in which the present applicants have been named along with other accused persons. During the investigation the involvement of the present applicants are also found that they had played an active role in laundering of proceeds of crime generated out of illegal operations of Mahadev online book. They were fully aware of the illegal operations of Mahadev online book and despite that they were providing fake SIM cards and mobile phones to generate the OTP while playing the online betting to various persons. During the investigation, the mobile phones 8 and SIM cards were seized from the applicants, from which various information was extracted. After considering sufficient evidence against them and they have been arrested on 07.08.2024 and charge sheet has been filed in the case. 3. Learned counsel appearing for the applicants would submit that the investigating agency has acted most arbitrarily and it had nothing, but ill- motivated and mala fide intention to implicate the applicants in offence. They are having no connection or association in any way either with the affairs of the business of Mahadev online book or have received the proceeds of crime. He would further submit that the prosecution has failed to establish the link of present applicants with the alleged offence. He would further submit that in order to save the other accused persons, the present applicants have been implicated in the offence. There is no allegation against the present applicants that they were actively involved in operating any penal of Mahadev Online Book or any other betting app, but it is alleged that certain SIM cards and mobile phones have been seized from them, which were used for providing OTP during the online betting. The mobile phones, which are shown to be seized from the applicants, are actually not been seized from the applicants. He would further submit that there is no evidence collected by the prosecution that the mobile phones and SIM cards, which are allegedly seized from the applicants are actually used in online betting app. There is no connection of the applicants with that of Mahadev Online Book, Lotus-365 or Reddy Anna Book. The prosecution agency has collected the electronic evidence, for which there is no basis that the applicants are involved in the offence. There is no ingredients of cheating in the material collected 9 during the investigation. No offence of either cheating, forgery of valuable security, using as genuine a forge document, any criminal conspiracy or even causing disappearance of any evidence. There is no sufficient material against the applicants for commission of offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The electronic evidence collected by the prosecution is very weak type of evidence, on which there is no possibility to sustain conviction of the applicants. There is no sufficient evidence in the charge sheet against the applicants that they actively involved in illegal earning through Mahadev Book. *******He would further submit that in the charge sheet it is alleged against the present applicants that they gained an unfair economic advantage by various illegal means, by providing mobile phones and SIM cards on online gambling, which makes them liable to be punished for the alleged offences, but there is no specific allegation against the applicants relating to any illegal act. There is no person, who were cheated by the applicants. There is no evidence that the applicants conspired with the other co-accused persons. The applicants are in jail since 07.08.2024 and till date only charge sheet has been filed and even the charges have not been framed and therefore, there is every possibility of delay in trial. The long period of incarceration and in view of the violation of his fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, the applicants are entitled for release on bail. *******In support of his submissions, he would rely upon the judgment passed by Hon’ble Supreme Court in Satender Kumar Antil v. CBI and another, (2022) 10 SCC 51, P. Chidambaram v. Directorate of 10 Enforcement, (2020) 13 SCC 791, Sanjay Chandra v. CBI, (2012) 1 SCC 40, Arvind Kejriwal v. Directorate of Enforcement, order dated 12.07.2024 passed in Criminal Appeal No. 2493 of 2024, Manish Sisodia v. Directorate of Enforcement, 2024 SCC OnLine SC 1920, Siddharth v. State of Uttar Pradesh, (2022) 1 SCC 676, Joginder Kumar v. State of U.P., 1994 Cr.L.J. 1981 and submitted that looking to the period of their custody, they are cooperative during the entire investigation and there is no possibility of tampering with the witnesses or document as the investigation has already been completed. Therefore, the applicants may be enlarged on bail. 4. Per contra, learned counsel for the State vehemently opposed the submissions of learned counsel for the applicants and has submitted that during the investigation, it was found that the promoters of Mahadev Online Book, who had created an online platform as an alternative to illegal betting in various live games in place of offline betting and started betting through various websites through WhatsApp, Facebook and Telegram. From the illegal earning, about 70-80% of the earning were kept by the promoters and the remaining amount was given to penal operators. Their turnover was about Rs. 450 Crores monthly through online betting app. The transaction of amount was through the bank accounts, which were opened on the basis of fake documents for transaction of the said illegal earned income. The huge cash amount was spent by the promoters of Mahadev Book App on advertisement of betting websites and for that they organized ‘Star Studded’ events, in which the various Bollywood celebrities were participated. Investments have been made in various companies, shell companies and stock 11 market and also in cryptocurrency. Another betting platform Sky Exchange was also run by Harishankar Tibrewal from whose possession the assets worth of Rs. 580 Crores were acquired through illegal earning. *******It is also submitted by him that the present applicants were misused the Aadhar Card/Identity Card/Photos of various persons in the illegal business of betting through online gambling app, like Mahadev Book, Reddy Anna and Fair Play and purchased SIM cards of various companies and used those SIM cards to make players/punters, play betting in Mahadev Book. These SIM cards were used for promotion of Mahadev Book as penal operator, customer care number, to login to WhatsApp and they also arranged bank accounts for circulation of illegal money comes from Mahadev Book. The applicant Bharat Jyoti Pandey was also found to be operated a penal in Mahadev Book and a huge number of SIM cards and mobile phones have been seized from the present applicants. The present applicants were operating OTP centres for Mahadev Book and other betting platform by arranging keypad mobiles and fake SIM cards. The WhatsApp group was also created by the OTP centre, which connected with the representative of Mahadev Book from head office at Dubai. The said SIM cards were distributed in alphanumeric series and delivered to the accused persons through parcels from the head office of Mahadev Book. The OTP was sent through text messages and on the basis of tax messages, WhatsApp was activated. He would further submit that from the possession of the applicant- Bharat Jyoti Pandey @ Guru @ Bhaskar 50 mobile phones and more than 400 SIM cards have been seized from his possession. 12 From the applicant- Vishwajeet Rai Choudhary, huge number of mobile phones and SIM cards have been seized. Further, from the applicant- Atul Singh also 25 mobile phones and huge number of SIM cards were seized during investigation. He would further submit that from the statement of the witnesses Kamlesh Gupta, Vikram Singh, Sanjay Gupta, Tipu Sharma, Dipender Sharma, Rahul Kumar Tyagi, Krishna Dalai, Rishu Kumar Tiwari and Pradeep Kumar Pandey, the involvement of the applicants in the offence in question have been duly connected. There is overwhelming evidence against the applicants to connect them in the offence in question and therefore they are not entitled for bail. He would also submit that when the EOW/ACB received an information of cognizable offence, he has to register the FIR as per the direction issued by Hon’ble Supreme Court in case of Lalita Kumari v. Government of Uttar Pradesh and Ors. (2008) 7 SCC 164. The ECIR is not an FIR, but is a complaint. He would further submit that for commission of offence under Section 3 of PMLA, it is not necessary that a person must also commit the predicate offence. He would also submit that the involvement in the criminal activity is the relevant consideration. A person can be held guilty in money laundering, even if he is not named in the scheduled offence. In support of his contention, he relied upon the case of Vijay Madanlal Choudhary v. Union of India, 2022 SCC OnLine SC 929. In the present case, the offence under the money laundering act is not akin to the offence of IPC or the Prevention of Corruption Act. The offence of money laundering is entirely different from the offence of cheating or forgery of the valuable security/document. He would also relied upon the judgment passed by the Hon’ble Supreme 13 Court in the matter of State Through CBI v. Anil Sharma, (1997), 7 SCC 187, in which the Hon’ble Supreme Court has considered that the custodial interrogation is a qualitative method of interrogation and ED has only shared certain information with the EOW/ACB, and it is for the EOW/ACB to interrogate the allegations of the information. Therefore, there is need to arrest to the applicants and to interrogate them. While considering the bail application, the allegations in the charge sheet against the applicants are the relevant consideration and the role of the accused and also the prima facie evidence available against them. In the present case, there is sufficient evidence available against the present applicants that they are involved in the alleged offence and looking to the seriousness of the offence, they are not entitled to be released on bail. 5. I have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the material placed in the present case by both the parties. 6. For consideration of the bail application of the applicant, the Court need not go deep inside the merits of the case, but should consider the prima facie material against the accused in the case. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the matter of Vijay Madanlal Choudhary case (supra) has observed in para 401 of its judgment that:- "401. We are in agreement with the observation made by the Court in Ranjitsing Brahmajeetsing Sharma [(2005) 5 SCC 294). The Court while dealing with the application for grant of bail need not delve deep into the merits of the case and only a view of the Court based on available material on record is required. The Court will not weigh the evidence to find the guilt of the accused which is, of course, the work of Trial Court. The Court is only required to place its view based on probability on the basis of 14 reasonable material collected during the investigation and the said view will not be taken into consideration by the Trial Court in recording its finding of the guilt or acquittal during trial which is based on the evidence adduced during the trial. As explained by this Court in Nimmagadda Prasad [(2013) 7 SCC 466], the words used in Section 45 of the 2002 Act are "reasonable grounds for believing" which means the Court has to see only if there is a genuine case against the accused and the prosecution is not required to prove the charge beyond reasonable doubt." 7. In the case of Satish Jaggi Vs. State of Chhattisgarh, (2007) 11 SCC 195, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has held that "at the stage of granting of bail, the Court can only go into the question of prima facie case established for granting bail, it cannot go into the question of credibility and reliability of witnesses put up by the prosecution. The question of credibility and reliability of prosecution witnesses can only be tested during trial." 8. In the present case from the statements of Kamlesh Gupta, Vikram Singh, Sanjay Gupta, Tipu Sharma, Dipender Sharma, Rahul Tyagi, Krishna Dalai, Rishu Kumar Tiwari and Pradeep Kumar Pandey, it comes that the present applicants are involved in illegal betting app of Mahadev Online Book and providing OTP for online betting app and they also provided the bank accounts for transaction of money comes from Mahadev Book online betting app and obtained their commission. They afforded huge amount of commission to the various persons for providing their bank accounts, which were to be used in money transactions of illegal betting app. From seizure of the huge items of mobile phones and SIM cards, itself shows their involvement in the offence in question. 15 9. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy Vs. CBI, reported in (2013) 7 SCC 439 has held in para 34 and 35 of its judgment that "34. Economic offences constitute a class apart and need to be visited with a different approach in the matter of bail. The economic offences having deep-rooted conspiracies and involving huge loss of public funds need to be viewed seriously and considered as grave offences affecting the economy of the country as a whole and thereby posing serious threat to the financial health of the country. 35. While granting bail, the court has to keep in mind the nature of accusations, the nature of evidence in support thereof, the severity of the punishment which conviction will entail, the character of the accused, circumstances which are peculiar to the accused, reasonable possibility of securing the presence of the accused at the trial, reasonable apprehension of the witnesses being tampered with, the larger interests of the public/State and other similar considerations. 10. Hon'ble Supreme Court in the matter of Vijay Madanlal Choudhary (supra) has observed in para 398 as under :- "398. Thus, it is well settled by the various decisions of this Court and policy of the State as also the view of international community that the offence of money- laundering is committed by an individual with a deliberate design with the motive to enhance his gains, disregarding the interests of nation and society as a whole and which by no stretch of imagination can be termed as offence of trivial nature. Thus, it is in the interest of the State that law enforcement agencies should be provided with a proportionate effective mechanism so as to deal with these types of offences as the wealth of the nation is to be safeguarded from these dreaded criminals. As discussed above, the conspiracy of money-laundering, which is a three-staged process, is hatched in secrecy and executed 16 in darkness, thus, it becomes imperative for the State to frame such a stringent law, which not only punishes the offender proportionately, but also helps in preventing the offence and creating a deterrent effect." 11. Having considered the rival submissions made by respective parties, as also from the material produced in the present case, it is not acceptable that the present applicants did not know about the transactions of Mahadev online book and the money obtained by them. Seizure of huge number of mobile phones and SIM cards from the applicants and statements of the witnesses clearly demonstrates their association with the others, who associated with Mahadev Book and Reddy Anna Book. Denial by the applicants itself is not sufficient to consider prima facie that there is no mens rea of the applicants for the said offence either under the IPC, Chhattisgarh Gambling (Prohibition) Act, 2022 or Public Gambling Act, 1867 or under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Although the statements of the witnesses are required to be tested at the time of trial, but for the purpose of consideration of bail application, the statements of the witnesses are relevant for consideration of bail application of the applicants. 12. As has been discussed hereinabove, it cannot be said that there is no involvement of the applicants in the offence in question. Considering the role of the applicants in providing mobile phones/SIM cards/bank accounts and OTP and obtaining the money through illegal source, which is the proceeds of crime in the Mahadev book app, it is found that there is sufficient evidence collected by the EOW/ACB to prima facie show the involvement of the applicants in the alleged offences. It is an organized crime having various facets of its complexion, therefore, further 17 considering the nature of offence and material collected during the investigation, this Court is satisfied that there is prima facie evidence for believing that the applicants are involved in the offence, therefore, I am not inclined to release the applicants on bail. 13. Consequently, the present bail application filed by the applicants- Bharat Jyoti @ Guru @ Bhaskar, Vishwajeet Rai Choudhari and Atul Singh is rejected. Sd/- (Ravindra Kumar Agrawal) Judge ved