Mumbai: The special PMLA court on Tuesday extended ED custody of Chirag Shah and Chintan Shah, arrested in connection with the the Fairplay app money laundering case, for six days, after the ED claimed that they are also linked to Mahadev batting App and their links with it.

Shah brothers were initially arrested in connection with their alleged role in the money laundering case based on the complaint lodged by Viacom for copyright violations. However, defence had pleaded that the Bombay high court had quashed the complaint on the basis of the settlement arrived done between the two parties.

The special court had twice extended ED custody of the brother as the order of the Bombay high court was not available. Thereafter it was scheduled for further hearing on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, when the two were produced before the court, the ED prosecutor Sunil Gonsalves, sought for their further custody for six days claiming that apart from the complaint filed by Viacom, it has also included the complaint lodged with Matunga police station for illegal batting.

"The purview of the case is not limited to illegal streaming of the IPL matches and copyright violations but also to the extend of batting," Gonsalves argued.

He claimed that the software, which is banned in India was of Krish Shah who is related to Chirag and Chintan. It was contended that the software is developed and maintained by the firm owned by Chirag and Chintan. Gonsalves also claimed that they are linked to Mahadev batting App as well. He claimed that the funds are collected in Dubai and UK in cryptocurrency wallets.

The ED contended that soon after the Indian government blocked these apps and banned them, the operations shifted to Dubai through other websites but the domain remains the same. Besides, he said that their monthly collection goes upto Rs 300 to Rs 400 crores.

Gonsalves produced day to day collection sheet wherein he pointed out on one such day, the total connection was Rs 21 crores and their daily gross revenue is over 7 crores. Further, he pointed out that there over 41 active participants and over 1 lakh ids registered on the app.

Gonsalves claimed that the magnitude of the probe is huge involving around Rs 15000 crores hence they need police custody of the two brothers who are aware of all the operational details for six more days.

The plea was objected by the defence senior counsel Pranav Badheka on the ground of jurisdiction. He pointed out that even in the grounds of arrested handed over to the accused there is no mention of the case related to Mahadev batting App and nor in their subsequent application for remand. The mention of second case came only in the second remand application placed on Saturday, after they realised that the main case had been quashed, Badheka contended.

Besides it was pointed out that the batting and gambling is not added in the list of offences to initiate money laundering probe. He asked for rejection of ED's plea and subsequently immediate release of the two brothers.

The special court however rejected the defence contention and said that, since the grounds of arrest and previous remand mentioned that ED is probing allegations related to illegal activities linked to Fairplay app, and the case of Mahadev batting App has been added to ED's ECIR, the agency has jurisdiction to probe, the court held.

Besides the court has also noted that Krish Shah who was the owner of the fairplay app has sold the app to Saurabh Chandrakar, who is linked to Mahadev batting App. Hence the court said the probe into allegation is required.