ED Raids In Mumbai: What Is Dabba Trading? How ‘Black Market Version Of Dalal Street’ Operates?

Last Updated:July 15, 2025, 15:16 IST

ED raids in Mumbai in dabba trading, online betting case: Agency has seized Rs 3.3 crore cash, jewellery, imported cars, including a Mercedes, and a box full of luxury watches

The cars recovered by ED. (News18)

Mumbai’s infamous money maze just got real. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at four locations across the city in connection with a major ‘dabba trading’ and online betting case.

According to ED sources, it has already seized Rs 3.3 crore in cash, foreign currency, cash counting machines, jewellery, imported cars, including a Mercedes, and a box full of luxury watches.

The searches started like any other quiet crackdown. However, behind the locked doors and encrypted servers, the ED unearthed a scandal straight out of a Bollywood thriller that is replete with flashy watches, high-end luxury cars, unaccounted cash, dark digital underworlds, and profit-sharing pacts carved out in percentages.

The investigation uncovered a web of illegal dabba trading and online betting rackets operating from Mumbai, that is wired into wallets nationwide.

What is dabba trading?

In street speak or it is locally known, dabba trading is similar to stock market gambling minus the stock market. It is an informal way of trading, which is illegal and often turns out to be scams. There is official exchange, no regulator. It is just a parallel market where traders place bets on stock price movements, but without buying or selling a single share on record.

Senior officers explain it as the black market version of Dalal Street. It is tax-free dealing with colossal risk and no existing digital footprint. This is seen as a dark digital world that has admins, not dons.

Modus operandi: Click, bet, launder, repeat

The ED’s probe, initiated following a first information report (FIR) in Indore, revealed how tech replaced turf wars. Vishal Agnihotri, a digital kingpin, acquired “ADMIN rights" of LotusBook—a betting platform—under a profit-sharing deal with almost a 5% cut.

Stepping forward, the deals got murkier as he passed the reins to Dhaval Devraj Jain, handing over 4.875% while holding on to a neat 0.125% for himself. By doing this, he avoided being at the frontline.

Together with John States alias Pandey (another scammer), Jain built a white-label betting empire, essentially franchised crime disguised as tech innovation. They floated several platforms 11Starss.in, IBull Capital Ltd, LotusBook, GamebetLeague, VMoney, VM Trading and so on. These are all betting platforms as dangerous as it is digital.

From the illegal trading, the group enters Hawala circuit. Mayur Pandya, a hawala operator, orchestrated untraceable fund transfers, cash drops, and payouts, turning online gambling into an offline money tsunami. But he did everything from behind the curtain.

From Indore FIR to Mumbai millions

However, this did not begin like a Mumbai scandal. Instead, it is a national one. With FIR No. 0041/2025 filed at Lasudiya Police Station, Indore, under the new Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (Sections 319(2) and 318(4)), the ED is now peeling back layers of this pan-India racket.

Madhuparna Das

Madhuparna Das, Associate Editor (policy) at CNN News 18, has been in journalism for nearly 14 years. She has extensively been covering politics, policy, crime and internal security issues. She has covered Naxa...Read More

Madhuparna Das, Associate Editor (policy) at CNN News 18, has been in journalism for nearly 14 years. She has extensively been covering politics, policy, crime and internal security issues. She has covered Naxa...

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News explainers ED Raids In Mumbai: What Is Dabba Trading? How ‘Black Market Version Of Dalal Street’ Operates?