Dubai-based billionaire businessman Nawab Shaji Ul Mulk brought about 500 Indian nationals into Zimbabwe who were deported by Zimbabwean authorities during the first half of the year for settling up online sports betting, it has been confirmed.
A keen cricket promoter and the only Indian member on the Emirates Cricket Board and chairman of the T10 League Mulk whose company Ul Mulk International, a Sharjah-based industrial conglomerate, is behind the building of a US$500 million high-tech park in Harare – Zimbabwe’s capital city which is expected to boost the country’s economic development.
It has also emerged that some of the people Ul Mulk had brought to Zimbabwe are wanted people in New Delhi, raising questions about his credibility and business ethics after also falling out with some Nigerian authorities and businessmen.
Economists, analysts and some fund managers in India, Dubai and Pakistan are questioning if Mulk’s net worth is really above US$1 billion because of his questionable business practices and ethics.
Mulk was brought to Zimbabwe by businessman and investor, Tempter Tungwarara last year. Contacted for comment from his base in Dubai, Tungwara defended Mulk saying “ All I know is he is a businessman and investor, I surely cannot comment on the allegations you are raising. You should be alive to which department to contact for official comment and proper facts.”
No comment could be obtained from Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration as this publication kept being referred to different offices. Efforts to get a comment from Mulk were also fruitless.
The Online betting outlets trading under Fairplay are a brainchild of Sourabh Chandrakar who is a wanted person in India
The deportations were a result of combined efforts by Zimbabwe’s ministry of home affairs led by Kazembe Kazembe who is the minister, immigration official and anti-corruption task force.
Ul Mulk and Zimbabwe President ED Mnangagwa
Zimbabwe has been on the offensive to weed out elements believed to be against their agenda of growing its economy, improving ease of doing business rankings and foreign direct investment and corruption.
According to hindustantimes, Chandraker is the mastermind of the online illegal betting app Mahadev Book originally hails from Bhilai in Chhattisgarh.
He is part of a 16 members of ₹4,000 cr betting racket with links to 11 countries held in Noida. The racket involved an illegal Mahadev Book app. The suspects were operating from a three-storey bungalow in sector 108 and stole more than ₹405 crore from their victims in 2 months, the police were quoted in the paper saying.
According to police officers quoted by the paper, the betting syndicate is headed by Chandrakar in Dubai, who operates various other illegal betting centres in Noida.
“Chandrakar’s operations in India are handled by Sachin Soni. Chandrakar used to provide bank accounts, fake Sim cards, mobile phones and laptops to suspects,” said Verma.
DCP Chander said, “Two of the suspects were recently trained in Dubai as well. They spent 22 days in training there.”
The police recovered 12 laptops, 73 smartphones, 19 chequebooks, 6 passbooks, 90 ATM cards, 58 Sim cards, six passports, a Creta car and a Thar Jeep along with other incriminating documents from the suspects, he added.
Chandrakar who was to obtain a diplomatic passport arranged by Mulk is believed to be hiding in Dubai, but recently changed his nationality to Vanuatuan – Country in Oceania. Vanuatu is a South Pacific Ocean nation made up of roughly 80 islands that stretch 1 300 kilometres.
According to the Times of India, the company’s corporate accounts were allegedly linked to fictional companies that transfer or launder money obtained through unlawful online gambling software to safe havens in the Middle East.
According to media reports in UAE when he wanted to wed in February this year, law enforcement agents reportedly kept an eye on the number of people attending as per news reports from Bhilai. Immigration authorities were also contacted, and the police have issued a lookout notice.
The dark side of online sports betting came to light when police from Noida and Chhattisgarh busted a gambling racket run via the Mahadev Book app.
A racket worth 4 000 crores. It began with the onset of the pandemic. The network expanded to Pakistan… the UAE and 11 other countries in a matter of months.
According to police, he built this digital platform with the help of his techie accomplice – Ravi Utpal during the Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020.
Source: Dubai Times
