Key accused in Mahadev betting app scam in Kapurthala jail
One of the key accused in the Rs 6,000 crore Mahadev betting app scam, highlighted by the Mumbai police in November 2023 and subsequently being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate, had been quietly arrested by the Jalandhar police two months back. The arrest was not disclosed but came to light only after his bail application came up for hearing last week.
A Bhopal native, Girish Talreja, was arrested by the police on February 15. His name was added in an already registered FIR pertaining to the recovery of poppy husk in November 2024 at Sadar Police Station here. He is currently on judicial remand in the Kapurthala jail. It had been just 12 days since Talreja had been released from Central Jail at Raipur on bail from the Supreme Court in the ED case when he was arrested again by the Jalandhar police.
Talreja’s lawyer Mandeep Sachdev had pleaded in the Special Court of Dharminder Paul Singla last week during the hearing on his bail application, “No recovery of drugs had been made from him. He had been booked only on the basis of disclosure statement made by a co-accused". The bail application, however, was rejected on the ground that the case involved the recovery of 15 quintals and 40 kg of poppy husk, which is a commercial quantity and there were allegations against him of being involved in hawala transactions through a Ludhiana-based person.
Dhanpreet Kaur, Commissioner of Police, Jalandhar, said, “The case was registered before I joined the post. I am sure the teams must have done all investigations by now. I need to get it checked".
The FIR has the names of Guravtar Singh of Bilga, Daler Singh and Desh Raj, both from Mehatpur town of Jalandhar. The name of Parkash Patel, working for a Gujarat-based courier company in Ludhiana, on whose statement Talreja got arrested, had been added later in the FIR.
Meanwhile, there are suspects from Punjab – Amit Sharma, Hemant Sood, Rajiv Bhatia, Chander Aggarwal and Dinesh Khanwat – whose names have been allegedly linked to the Mahadev app betting scam.
The ED had in October last conducted a raid at the residence of Chander Aggarwal at Guru Teg Bahadir Nagar in Jalandhar. The ED continues to conduct more raids, follow the money trails and political links. The ED has already made 30 arrests in the case.
Even yesterday, raids were conducted by the Central agency on the premises of those linked to the case at multiple locations, including Chandigarh, Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Chennai and Indore.
Dr Daljit S Cheema, SAD leader, has already been claiming that in more serious cases of drugs haul, both state and central agencies should work in tandem and undertake joint investigation so that any chances of hanky panky are ruled out.
Jalandhar