E-Paper
Mahadev app co-founder seeks removal of Interpol red notice
Uppal said he is being targeted in India due to political reasons and would not receive a fair trial in the country.
Ravi Uppal, co-founder of Mahadev Online Book App, who fled from the UAE last year and is untraceable, has asked the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files (CCF) to remove the red notice against him, people familiar with the matter said.
CCF is an independent five-member high-powered body within the international police agency that reviews global arrest warrants against fugitives.
In his appeal to CCF, Uppal is believed to have argued that he is being targeted in India due to political reasons and would not receive a fair trial in the country, the people cited above said. India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) has already sent a detailed response to CCF along with charge sheets and other evidence “vehemently contesting“ Uppal’s claims and urged it to reject his plea, they added.
Uppal and his business partner Sourabh Chandrakar fled India in 2019. An Interpol red notice was issued against him in October 2023 based on which he was taken into custody in Dubai two months later. The next month (January 2024), ED sent an extradition request to the UAE authorities but he was released within 45 days.
HT exclusively reported on November 4 last year that Uppal had fled the UAE as well and could be at an unknown location. Indian agencies have information that he has acquired the passport of Vanuatu and may be hiding there, according to one of the people cited above.
“There is a new trend of fugitives approaching the Interpol CCF to make frivolous claims of political trial, torture, etc to seek relief against the red notice so that they can travel freely and continue their illegal activity. We have challenged Uppal’s plea based on evidence collected into Mahadev’s activities, which are ongoing,” said a second person.
CCF’s withdrawal of red notices were seen in the instances of Mehul Choksi, whose global warrant was withdrawn in November 2022 based on the allegations that he was abducted in Antigua and Barbuda. Similarly, in the case of Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, Interpol rejected three red notice requests in 2017 and 2019 (two requests), despite Indian agencies arguing before CCF that Naik had a in spreading hate messages and money laundering.
In the case of Choksi, the second officer said the rejection “ doesn’t matter anymore because he was arrested in Belgium last year; but we have already taken up with the CCF that its decision was faulty and was based on conjecture”.
Uppal, in his late 40s, and his partner in the ₹6,000 crore fraud, Chandrakar, started the Mahadev online betting app syndicate in 2018. The illegal betting operation, still running across India despite the government banning multiple platforms and apps linked to Mahadev, allows people to place illegal bets on poker and other card games, games of chance, cricket, badminton, tennis and football matches, even elections.
ED has claimed in one of its charge sheets in the case that the “betting empire” was operating at least 3,200 (betting) panels in different cities, generating around ₹240 crore per day.
HT reported last week that India has also sent a fresh extradition request against Chandrakar, who is believed to be underground in Dubai, to the UAE.
