Raipur, Jul 15 A special PMLA court in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday remanded Ebix Group chairman Vikas Garg to 10 days of ED custody in the multi-crore-rupee money laundering case linked to the Mahadev online betting app.
Garg, 53, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Tuesday from his house in Delhi after conducting searches.
He was then produced before a special court in Delhi, which granted the central agency 24-hour custody to take him to Raipur, Chhattisgarh, where the investigation is taking place.
On Wednesday, the ED produced Garg before the court of Special Judge Amit Rathore in Raipur which sent him to the agency's custody for 10 days.
The judge stated in his order that prima facie, Garg's arrest was made on "firm ground" and the investigation required time.
"The court has sent Vikas Garg to ED custody till July 24. We informed the court about the flow of funds from the Mahadev app to him," ED lawyer Saurabh Pandey said.
A response from Ebix regarding the arrest is awaited.
Garg's counsel told the court that his arrest was "baseless" and that there was no evidence against him.
The ED charged Garg with "dissipating" and "encumbering" the shares of Ebix and trying to mortgage and sell the company's headquarters property located in the US which the agency categorised as proceeds of crime in this case.
Garg is also the promoter of three listed companies -- Vikas Ecotech Limited, Vikas Lifecare Limited and Eraaya Lifespaces Limited -- apart from the Ebix Group.
According to the ED, he had acquired a 64 per cent stake in EbixCash through Eraaya Lifespaces by "utilising" funds allegedly generated from illegal betting activities.
Last week, the central agency said in a statement that it has attached assets worth Rs 940.77 crore of Garg, his family members and entities linked to him as part of the investigation.
"The attachment forms part of the ongoing money laundering investigation in the Mahadev Online Book/Skyexchange illegal online betting case," the ED said.
The agency has alleged that the Mahadev betting app case involves high-ranking politicians and bureaucrats from Chhattisgarh and the proceeds of crime generated in the case stand at Rs 6,000 crore.
It has also alleged that the illegal betting operations of Mahadev Online Book and Skyexchange (a Dubai-based exchange) were laundered through a multi-layered structure of accommodation (hawala) entries arranged against cash through a web of shell entities and other layered transactions.
Investigation has shown that proceeds of crime worth Rs 940.77 crore of the Mahadev Online Book-Skyexchange betting operations were, in this manner, routed into entities owned and "controlled" by Garg.
These funds were utilised for acquiring shares, securities and other assets, the ED has alleged.
According to the agency, the Mahadev online betting app operated as a large-scale international betting syndicate that facilitated alleged illegal betting through multiple online platforms and domain names, such as 'Tiger Exchange', 'Gold365' and 'Laser247'.
The operations were structured through a franchise-based network of "panels" and "branches" operated by associates across India, while the main absconding promoters -- Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal -- operated and controlled the betting syndicate from Dubai, the ED has said.
This is the 14th arrest in the case, which has named 74 entities as accused in the five chargesheets filed so far before a special PMLA court in Raipur.
