Ravi Uppal, co-promoter of the Mahadev online betting app, has been arrested in the UAE, and Indian authorities are initiating efforts to secure his extradition, officials said on Wednesday.
The development comes after a CBI team brought back Uppal's friend and another promoter of the Mahadev app, Saurabh Chandrakar, from Oman on November 1 after a court there allowed his extradition to India in a money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate.
Authorities in Dubai arrested 46-year-old Uppal based on an Interpol Red Notice issued against him by Indian probe agencies, the officials told PTI.
The CBI and the ED are working to extradite him to India, they said.
Uppal was once detained by authorities in the UAE in 2023 but agencies later found that he was in Australia.
Both Uppal and Chandrakar hail from Bhilai town in Durg district of Chhattisgarh.
The agency said the Mahadev app, also called Mahadev Online Book (MOB), began operations in 2019-20. Its user base grew "sharply" during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and continued to expand.
The app, which runs through thousands of panels, allegedly generated proceeds of crime worth Rs 80,000 crore since 2019.
(With inputs from PTI)