DELHI : Less than two weeks after SEBI launched an investigation into the Burman family’s investment in broking and lending firm Religare, the Mumbai Police booked the company’s promoters and two brothers, Mohit and Gaurav Burman, accusing them of being involved in an illegal online betting enterprise. The Burman family is the owners and promoters of the Dabur Group, which includes the products Vatika hair oil, Chywanprash, and Real juices.
Although Gaurav is a director of Dabur International, Mohit Burman is the chairman of the Dabur Group.
The state government has suffered a total loss of Rs 15,000 crore as a result of the Burmans’ unlawful gambling racket operations, according to the Mumbai FIR against them.
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These revelations coincide with the fact that the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which is investigating allegations of share manipulation of Religare and for which the Burmans have made an open offer to invest, is already investigating the Dabur Group. The Burmans are accused of embezzling money from Punjab’s Radha Soami Beas Dera.
Following a complaint from social activist Prakash Ghanshyam Bankar against 21 people, including the Burman brothers, a formal case was filed with the Mumbai police. The Mumbai FIR highlights the social media accounts and online betting website www.khiladi.com (Khiladi Book).
The Mumbai FIR also names a Dubai resident, Kumar, as the owner of the website and a $20 million London home. The extent of the Burmans’ connections to the accused is unclear. The chief accused, Saurabh Chandrakar, a Chhatisgarh native, is charged by the police of running 1,200 branches of this racket in different Indian states, allegedly making a profit of Rs. 2,40,000 per day and Rs. 8,60,40,00,000 per month.
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According to the FIR, Rohit Kumar Murgai, an alleged gambler, has also approved the website. Numerous betting platforms are available on the website under a profit-sharing arrangement, including 11xplay, 99exch, Betbhai, BJ88, CBTF, Coexch99, Cricbet99, Fairbook247, Fairexchange, Fairplay, Laserbook 247, Lotus365, WinBuzz, ReddyAnna, and SportsX9.
The complainant claims that panel owners are chosen by anonymous Dubai-based individuals who supervise the entire betting activity.
The need to become a panel owner or branch head is Rs 20 lakh. The FIR claims that branch chiefs manage a minimum of one hundred branches within its network, and that they receive weekly transfers of monies collected by individual branches, with the branch heads keeping twenty percent of the funds.
The FIR stated that the links between the accused—which include Mohit Burman, Gaurav Burman, and one Hareshbhai Kalabhai Choudhary—are intended to facilitate match-fixing.
“After making an inquiry, I was horrified to discover that the 1,200 branches of the Accused Saurabh Chandrakar, Ravi Uppal, and his Various Unknown Cooperatives are active in multiple Indian states. I was even more startled to learn that each branch makes a total profit of Rs. 2,40,000 every day, which adds up to a monthly profit of Rs. 8,60,40,00,000, according to the FIR citing Bankar.
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“I mean, a company that makes such enormous profits would have to pay GST on both the profit—which could total up to Rs 5,000 crores for a given fiscal year—and the money that is received from users or players through deposits. Therefore, since its establishment in 2019, the Government of India may be able to collect from the accused and linked parties an amount of Rs 15,000 crores as lawful tax,” Bankar has further said in the FIR.
Three persons, “Amit Sharma, Dinesh Khambat, and Chander Aggarwal, as top match-fixers who also control the online betting business,” are also accused in the FIR.
According to the FIR, Chander Aggarwal is said to have indirect involvement in a cricket team that is directly connected to Mohit and Gaurav Burman, who own stock in one of the league clubs. Despite calling Mohit Burman, the Burman family has not commented since the filing of the FIR.
