Saurabh Chandrakar, a key figure in the Mahadev Online Book syndicate, landed in India on Sunday after the Central Bureau of Investigation escorted him from Muscat. The CBI deployed a special team to retrieve him following his detention by the Royal Oman Police in July. He is wanted in two CBI cases and a separate Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation into money laundering.
The scale of the alleged operation is staggering. The ED, in a supplementary chargesheet filed before a Raipur court, pegged the syndicate's total proceeds of crime at roughly ₹75,000–80,000 crore between 2019 and 2026. Investigators claim the network ran approximately 3,200 active panels across India and abroad. Each panel is estimated to have generated around ₹30 lakh per month, aggregating to approximately ₹11,400 crore annually.
The money trail led investigators to a lavish event in February 2023. Chandrakar’s wedding in Dubai sparked the ED’s scrutiny after the agency uncovered reports of ₹200 crore spent in cash. Private jets ferried family members from Nagpur, while Mumbai-based professionals handled the decoration and entertainment. Digital evidence suggests ₹112 crore was routed through hawala channels to an event management firm, and another ₹42 crore was paid in UAE dirhams for hotel bookings.
The CBI stated the syndicate operated from outside India, using mule bank accounts to layer transactions before moving funds abroad via hawala networks. A portion of the illicit earnings allegedly went to paying protection money to public servants. Chandrakar will undergo a medical examination and be moved to Raipur.
He is scheduled to be produced before the CBI Special Judge in Raipur on Monday. The extradition was facilitated by close coordination between Indian agencies, Interpol’s National Central Bureau, and the Sultanate of Oman authorities.