New Delhi [India], August 22 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out searches at 30 locations across six states in connection with a money laundering case against Karnataka Congress legislator KC Veerendra, his brother and several others for their alleged involvement in illegal online and offline betting, officials said.
Veerendra is the Congress MLA from the Chitradurga assembly seat in Karnataka.
ED's Bengaluru zonal office searched 30 premises spanning Chitradurga (six), Bengaluru (10), Jodhpur (3), Hubli (one), Mumbai (two), and Goa (eight), including five prominent casinos--Puppy's Casino Gold, Ocean Rivers Casino, Puppy's Casino Pride, Ocean 7 Casino, and Big Daddy Casino.
The officials said that the preliminary findings suggest that Chitradurga MLA Veerendra and his associates were running multiple illegal betting websites under names such as King567, Raja567, Puppy's003, and Rathna Gaming.
The investigation further revealed that Veerendra's brother, KC Thippeswamy, was operating three Dubai-based entities, Diamond Softech, TRS Technologies, and Prime9 Technologies, that were linked to the call centre and gaming operations.
The agency also covered premises linked to Anil Gowda, brother of MLA Kusuma H from Rajarajeshwarinagar, Bengaluru.
The officials further said incriminating digital and documentary evidence related to the betting racket and its alleged overseas links were seized during the searches.