The sessions court on Wednesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Bollywood actor Sahil Khan, booked for his association with the online betting application Lion Book, which in turn is alleged to be linked to Mahadev betting application.
Court's observations
While rejecting the plea, the sessions judge, Dr Abhay A Joglekar, observed that prima facie there is evidence to show his link with Lion Book. The court has said that the probe is at an initial stage, hence his plea cannot be granted.
Khan had approached the court for anticipatory bail on Tuesday, and his lawyer Rajiv Chavan had argued that as per the agreement his role was only to promote the application on various platforms. He further said that the actor was not involved in any illegal activities. Public prosecutor Abhijeet Gondwa opposed the plea, stating that Lion Book was connected to Mahadev and 66 other such applications.
According to the prosecution, these applications operate through more that 2,000 fictitious SIM cards and over 17,000 bogus bank accounts. Hence, the agency said the volume of the fraud was huge. The agency said so far it is revealed that the syndicate is said to have not paid taxes to the tune of Rs15,000 crore out of the total profits earned by these apps. Besides, it said online batting was promoted through more than 1,000 channels on Telegram.
What is the Lion Book app
The Lion Book app is similar to Mahadev Book app, with the tagline: ‘One life, one chance.’ It is claimed that the said application is a subsidiary application of Mahadev, which is promoted by Dubai-based hotelier and businessman, Hitesh Khushalani, in partnership with Bollywood actor Sahil Khan. Khushalani is alleged to be frontman for the Mahadev app promoter and absconding accused, Saurabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal.
