New Delhi. The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear on October 3 the bail plea of Chhattisgarh businessman Sunil Dammani, arrested in a money laundering case related to Mahadev online betting app. Chief Justice (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud and the bench comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra, the jailed businessman’s lawyer urged that there is an urgent need to hear the bail plea.
Dammani’s lawyer argued that his client has been in jail for more than 13 months, following which the CJI said, “In cases which are listed for hearing on a particular day, we generally do not hear them before or after that.” , But this is a bail plea… We will hear it on Thursday.” On August 23 last year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested Dammani and three others for their alleged involvement in a money laundering case related to the Mahadev app.
The Central Investigation Agency had also searched the locations of 10 people including former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s political advisor Vinod Verma. Apart from Sunil Dammani, his brother Anil Dammani, Chhattisgarh Police assistant sub-inspector Chandra Bhushan Verma and Raipur resident Satish Chandrakar were also arrested in the case.
The ED money laundering case is related to an FIR lodged by the state police in 2022 against betting app ‘Mahadev’ at Mohan Nagar police station in Durg district. According to the ED, the Dammani brothers own a jewelery shop and a petrol pump and are allegedly involved in hawala transactions. ASI Verma allegedly took bribe from other accused to save them from police action and it is also suspected that Verma gave bribe amount to other police officers also.