Rs 42 crore hotel rooms, private jets, Bollywood stars: Lavish Rs 200 crore wedding in UAE behind an Indian probe

A Rs 200 crore ultra lavish Indian wedding that took place in the United Arab Emirates in February earlier this year is in the news again after Bollywood superstar Ranbir Kapoor was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate. Kapoor has reportedly been called in by the probe agencies for questioning on October 6. The actor allegedly did promotional activities for a certain Mahadev betting app, which is promoted by the groom of the lavish UAE wedding that saw private jets for guests and Bollywood celebrities on the guest list.

What alarmed the ED about the wedding was that the massive expenditure of around Rs 200 crore was paid entirely in cash. The wedding was held in Ras Al-Khaimah and saw Sourabh Chandrakar, the 28-year-old promoter of Mahadev Online Book Betting app, throw a lavish affair as he took his vows.

ED revealed details regarding the wedding as part of its probe earlier in September. Guests were flown into RAK from Nagpur via private jets. Hotel room bookings were made worth around Rs 42 crore with the sum paid in cash in UAE Dirham. Film stars were paid to perform at the event, ED has claimed.

ED seized assets during its probe which revealed that Rs 112 crore had been delivered via hawala channel to an event management company -- R-1 Events Pvt Ltd of Yogesh Popat, according to an ANI report. Celebrities who reportedly attended the wedding included Tiger Shroff, Sunny Leone, Neha Kakkar, Vishal Dadlani, Atif Aslam, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Ali Asgar, Bhagyashree, Pulkit and Bharti Singh, as per an IndiaTimes report last month.

Furthermore, the hosts hired wedding planners, dancers, and decorators from Mumbai. They used hawala channels to make payments in cash. This led to the ED opening an online money laundering case linked with the Mahadev app with “sudden and illegal riches” being “openly flaunted by them”.

Chandrakar is the promoter of the app alongside one Ravi Uppal. Both reportedly hail from Bhilai in Chhattisgarh. The ED conducted searches at 39 locations in Raipur, Bhopal, Mumbai and Kolkata and has seized illegal assets worth Rs 417 crore till now as part of its investigations.