Shefali Bagga surrenders Rs 1.2 crore in Mahadev app case

TV presenter and former Bigg Boss contestant Shefali Bagga has voluntarily surrendered Rs 1.2 crore to the Enforcement Directorate in the Mahadev Online Betting app case. The figure appears in the agency’s latest chargesheet, filed before a Raipur court.

For viewers who remember her from Bigg Boss 13, the update turns a familiar face into a named party in a sprawling money-laundering probe, and it arrives months after the ED searched her Delhi home.

What the ED claims about Bagga

The agency says Bagga received around Rs 1.5 crore for making promotional videos for the Mahadev betting app syndicate. During the May search at her Delhi residence, officials say they seized Rs 30 lakh in cash. She was questioned twice and later surrendered the remaining Rs 1.2 crore, the ED has said.

Bagga has told investigators she was “unaware that the app was being operated illegally”, the chargesheet notes. The ED has also pointed to her large social media following while examining how the betting platform was promoted.

A chargesheet that goes far beyond one celebrity

Bagga is one of 42 people named in the latest filing. The list includes Vikas Garg, chairman of the Ebix Group, who was arrested in the case, and EaseMyTrip promoter Nishant Pitti.

The scale of the allegations is what makes this unusual:

• Over Rs 59 crore in alleged proceeds was routed through the network linked to Pitti, the ED has claimed.
• Properties worth more than Rs 940 crore were attached in connection with Garg before his arrest.
• The ED now pegs total alleged proceeds of crime above Rs 75,000 crore, and suggests the actual amount could be higher.

The agency has also alleged that Garg and alleged mastermind Harishankar Tibrewal, along with associates, used the proceeds to manipulate share prices of several listed companies. Garg, who the chargesheet says was associated with the BJP in Delhi, was removed from the party after his arrest.

Why this matters for TV and creator culture

The Mahadev case has already reached Bollywood: the ED has questioned or summoned actors, performers and singers over their alleged links with the syndicate, including those who attended overseas events organised by promoters or appeared in promotional videos.

For the television audience, the takeaway is practical. A celebrity promo is paid content, not proof that a platform is legal or safe. Bagga’s defence, as recorded in the chargesheet, rests on not knowing the app was run illegally. But the ED is using her follower count as part of the story of how the platform reached people.

Promoters Sourabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal remain wanted, and six chargesheets have been filed in the case so far. The immediate fact for fans is simple: Bagga has returned Rs 1.2 crore, and the probe is still expanding around her.

Source: India Today