Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel has been named in a first information report (FIR) registered by the State’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in connection with the alleged Mahadev app online betting scam, officials said on Sunday.
Mr. Baghel, who is the Congress candidate for the Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha constituency, denied the allegations, saying that they were intended to tarnish his reputation and mitigate the electoral impact of his candidacy on the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The FIR, registered on March 4, is based on a probe report submitted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has been investigating a money laundering case related to the Mahadev app for over a year. It lists 21 accused, including Mahadev app promoters Ravi Uppal, Saurabh Chandrakar, Shubham Soni, and Anil Kumar Agrawal, all of whom have booked under legal provisions pertaining to cheating and forgery.
