Ravi Uppal, who is one of the two main owners of the Mahadev online betting app, has been detained in Dubai by the local police, reported PTI. His detention is based on a red notice issued by Interpol at the behest of the Enforcement Directorate.

According to the official sources cited by PTI, the ED authorities are in contact with the Dubai authorities to get him deported to India since he was detained last week.

Besides Chhattisgarh Police and Mumbai Police, Uppal is also being investigated by the ED in a money laundering case linked to alleged illegal betting. A chargesheet has been filed by the federal probe agency against Uppal and another promoter of the Internet-based platform, Sourabh Chandrakar, before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Chhattisgarh's Raipur in October.

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A red notice was subsequently issued by the Interpol on the basis of ED's request.

In the chargesheet, the agency had told the court that Uppal had taken a passport of Vanuatu, an island country in the Pacific Ocean, even as he has not renounced Indian citizenship.

Uppal, the ED said in the prosecution complaint, "generated and enjoyed proceeds of crime and is involved in their concealment and layering." It had alleged Uppal was "looking after the delivery of the liasioning money to the bureaucrats and politicians of Chhattisgarh through Chandrabhushan Verma", an assistant sub-inspector of police, and some others.

According to ED, the projected proceeds of crime in this case is nearly Rs 6,000 crore.

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In November, just before the first phase of the election, the agency had claimed that forensic analysis and statement made by a 'cash courier' named Asim Das had led to "startling allegations" that Mahadev betting app promoters have paid about Rs 508 crore to former Chhattisgarh chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel so far, adding that these allegations were "subject matter of investigation".

(With inputs from agency)