Congress MLA KC Veerendra Arrested in Massive Betting Raid: ED Seizes ₹12 Crore Cash, ₹6 Crore Gold

New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has busted a big racket of illegal online and offline betting and arrested Karnataka's Chitradurga MLA KC Veerendra 'Pappi'. The ED took this action from Gangtok on Saturday. In the raids conducted on the MLA and his associated places, cash worth about Rs 12 crore, gold jewellery worth Rs 6 crore and 10 kg silver along with many luxury vehicles have been recovered so far. The seized cash also includes foreign currency worth about one crore rupees.

This action has been taken under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. According to the ED, MLA KC Virendra is accused of running a large illegal betting network.

In this case, the ED conducted searches at 30 locations in several cities simultaneously on Friday. According to the Bengaluru regional office of the Enforcement Directorate, raids were conducted at six premises in Chitradurga, Karnataka, ten in Bengaluru, one in Hubli, three in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, two in Mumbai and eight in Goa. Several big casinos including 'Puppy's Casino Gold', 'Big Daddy Casino' and 'Ocean 7 Casino' are also included in the action taken in Goa.

A senior official said that this search is being conducted in connection with money laundering related to illegal online and offline betting. Investigation has revealed that the accused MLA was running online betting websites under several names like King567, Raja567, Puppy's003 and Ratna Gaming, through which illegal transactions worth crores of rupees were being done. ED is now also looking for other people associated with this network.