Online gaming bill passed; ED raids Congress leader K.C. Veerendra, huge cash and gold seized

Just a day after the online gaming bill was passed in Parliament, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has recovered Rs 12 crore cash from the house of Karnataka Congress leader K.C. Veerendra. Apart from cash, ED has also seized jewelry worth Rs 6 crore.

After this raid, Congress MLA KC Veerendra has been arrested by ED in a money laundering case. Bundles of notes worth crores of rupees have been found in the ED raid. Foreign currency worth one crore rupees and jewelry worth crores of rupees have also been recovered in the raid. The investigating agency has informed that the Bengaluru regional office of ED conducted a search operation at 31 places across India including Gangtok, Chitradurga district, Bengaluru city, Hubli, Jodhpur, Mumbai and Goa on August 22 and 23. It also includes 5 casinos.

According to sources, a team of ED from Delhi started the raid in private vehicles early in the morning. According to the latest information, it is reported that after this raid, Congress MLA K.C. Veerendra has been arrested. It is worth noting that in 2016, MLA Veerendra, who was then in the JD(S) party, was arrested when the Income Tax Department recovered new currency worth Rs 5.70 crore from a secret room in his bathroom.

The officials found 32 kg gold biscuits and jewellery hidden behind the bathroom tiles from the MLA's house in Challakere town. Apart from this, old notes worth Rs 90 lakh were also recovered. Apart from Veerendra, the names of two middlemen from Chitradurga and some unknown officials of four banks have also been registered in the FIR in this case.

Raids in many states
ED raided 31 places across the country, including Gangtok, Chittadurga district, Bengaluru, Hubli, Jodhpur, Mumbai and Goa, action was also taken on five casinos in Goa - Pappy's Casino Gold, Ocean Rivers Casino, Pappy's Casino Pride, Ocean 7 Casino and Big Daddy Casino.

Companies were running from Dubai
Investigation has revealed that the accused was running several online betting sites, named King567, Raja567 etc. Apart from this, the accused's brother K. C. Thippaswamy runs three companies from Dubai - Diamond Softech, TRS Technologies and Prime9 Technologies. These companies are related to call center services and gaming business. At the same time, another brother K.C. Nagaraj and his son Prithvi N. Raj are also said to be involved in this work.