C.A.V. Order

1. This is the First Anticipatory bail application of the applicant Anil Tuteja, under Section 482 of the Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, apprehending his arrest in the offence of Crime Number RC2212024E0024, dated 18-12-2024, registered at Central Bureau of Investigation, New Delhi, (hereinafter called as “CBI”) for the offence punishable under sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 201 and 120-B of the IPC, Section 7 and 7A, of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in the year 2018), Section 4, 7, 8 and 11 of the Chhattisgarh Gambling (Prohibition) Act, 2022 and Section 4-A of the Public Gambling Act, 1867 {as amended Public Gambling (Madhya Pradesh Amendment) Act, 1976}.

2. The instant anticipatory bail application is filed by the applicant directly to this Court as per the direction given by the Hon’ble Supreme Court by its order dated 09-03-2026, passed in Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No. 19892 of 2025, whereby the Hon’ble Supreme Court granted liberty to the applicant to approach this Court for grant of regular/anticipatory bail. As the case may be.

3. Brief facts of the case of the prosecution are that an FIR of Crime No 112/2022 was registered on 29.07.2022 at Police Station Mohan Nagar, Durg (C.G.) under Section 4-A of the Public Gambling (C.G. Amendment) Act, 1976, and Section 420, 120-B of the IPC and also for Section 66-D of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The Enforcement Directorate had registered the Enforcement Case Information Report (hereinafter referred to as 'ECIR') No. ECIR/RPZO/10/2022. Initially, treating the FIR No. 112/2022 of P.S. Mohan Nagar, Durg and the final report dated 29.07.2022 as a scheduled/predicate offence, the respondent ED registered the ECIR No. RPZO/09/2022, which was renumbered as ECIR No. RPZ0/10/2022 vide corrigendum dated 07.11.2022 issued by the ED.

4. On 20.10.2023, the ED has filed its first prosecution complaint against 14 accused persons, alleging that the online gambling app in the name of Mahadev Online Book is established for illegal betting in different live games like; poker, card games, chance games, betting on cricket, badminton, tennis, football, etc. and also to provide facility for playing a number of card games like; teen patti, dragon tiger, virtual cricket games using cards, etc. It is also alleged that the Mahadev Online Book advertised these betting websites through closed WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages.

5. Thereafter, the ED filed three supplementary prosecution complaints on different dates, under Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (in short “PMLA-2002”), against a total of 31 additional accused persons for the commission of the offence under Sections 3 and 4 of PMLA-2002. On 19.01.2024, the learned Special Court has taken cognizance of the offence mentioned in the main prosecution complaint as well as the first supplementary complaint and summoned the accused persons.

6. The Anti-Corruption Bureau, Economic Offence Wing, Chhattisgarh, Raipur, on the information shared by the ED under Section 66 (2) of the PMLA-2002, on 04-03-2024, registered an offence of Crime No. 06/2024, for the offence under Section 120-B, 34, 406, 420, 467, 468, 471 of the IPC, Section 7 and 11 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in the year 2018), against 19 named and other accused persons including the bureaucrats, police officials and other individuals. In the said Crime No. 06/2024, registered at ACB/EOW, Raipur, the original Charge-Sheet has been filed on 19-07-2024, and the first supplementary Charge-Sheet has been filed on 08-10-2024.

7. The allegation in the FIR of Crime No. 06/2024 registered at ACB/EOW was that the promoters of the Mahadev Book App, namely Ravi Uppal, Shubham Soni, Saurabh Chandrakar and Anil Kumar Agrawal, established and operated a large-scale organized online betting network by creating various online platforms and websites for illegal betting on live games. The betting operations