Chhattisgarh youth injured in Mahadev App raid dies in Hyderabad hospital

RAIPUR: A 26-year-old suspect in a Mahadev App case, who was injured on Monday while trying to escape a Chhattisgarh police raid in Hyderabad, has died of his injuries.
Police say Sujeet Sao had jumped from a third-floor building to dodge the raid and was fatally injured. He was admitted to a hospital in Hyderabad where he died on Friday.
Sujeet was a native of Chhattisgarh’s Durg district and was part of a group that ran an online betting ‘panel’ in Hyderabad, named ‘Lotus 444’ and linked to Mahadev App.Police say it was Sujeet who led the module and he would keep a cut of the money earned through illegal betting and gambling.
According to police, when the Durg cops arrived at Emu Apartments in Hyderabad's Gacchiboli and rang the doorbell of flat number 303, they took the suspects by surprise. As soon as Sujeet saw the police team, however, he ran to the balcony and tried to jump into an adjacent flat but he slipped and fell three floors, said Durg additional SP Richa Mishra.
The cops arrested eight suspects, including Sujeet, and took him to hospital. He was initially mistaken for a minor but turned out to be 26 years old. Leaving him in hospital, the Durg police team returned to base with the other suspects, including a minor.
Investigators say Sujeet had ‘direct links’ with Shubham and Vinay Yadav, two key suspects arrested earlier.
Sources told TOI that Hyderabad Police had summoned four Chhattisgarh policemen after Sujeet’s fall, and that they also objected to the raid being conducted without keeping local cops in loop. Durg police tried to convince Sujeet’s family to go to Hyderabad but they apparently refused to conduct his funeral in an unknown city.
Sujeet’s body has been brought to Bhilai and he will be cremated on Saturday. His father Pramod Sao works as an autorickshaw driver and the family says it had no idea he was involved in the online betting racket.
His family was in shock and refused to speak to anyone. Neighbours, however, told mediapersons that Sujeet had told them he was working for a catering company in Hyderabad and would send money to his family every month.
Local sources said that just like Sujeet, nearly 3,000 youths from Durg’s Vaishali Nagar and Bhilai are trapped in the Mahadev App network, the founders of which are residents of Durg but presently based in Dubai.
These youths are mostly unemployed Class 12 passouts, looking for jobs. Once lured into the illegal betting network with the lure of easy money, they are asked to operate ‘panels’ of the operation from other cities. All it takes to run an online betting racket is basic knowledge of smartphones and computers.
These operators are put up in plush hotels or rented apartments in cities like Hyderabad, Goa, Mumbai and Pune, and each of them is paid at least Rs 20,000 with perks. Those who run these modules get to keep a cut.
Within two months, they begin showing off a lavish lifestyle. Locals noticed a sudden rise in living standards of these youths’ families, and alerted cops. This often proved to be the tip that led to the busting of such modules in Hyderabad and Pune.
Running an online betting racket is become an easy job for such youths who have basic knowledge of smart phones and computers, which takes them to lavish lifestyle almost within two months of their association with Mahadev app.