ED detains Chitradurga Congress MLA's brother in illegal betting case

Bengaluru/Chitradurga: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Friday detained a brother of Chitradurga MLA K C Veerendra Puppy as part of a money-laundering probe into an illegal online and offline betting racket.

The ED officials picked up K C Nagaraj for questioning after raiding 30 locations in four states linked to the Congress legislator, his brothers and associates.

In a statement, the ED said searches were conducted at 10 locations in Bengaluru, six in Chitradurga, one in Hubballi, three in Jodhpur, two in Mumbai and eight in Goa.

The locations included five casinos — Puppy’s Casino Gold, Ocean Rivers Casino, Puppy’s Casino Pride, Ocean 7 Casino and Big Daddy Casino — allegedly run by the MLA.

According to the ED, the suspects were also operating online betting websites such as King567, Raja567, Puppy’s003 and Rathna Gaming.

K C Thippeswamy, another brother of the MLA, was found to be running three business entities from Dubai — Diamond Softech, TRS Technologies and Prime9 Technologies — linked to the call centre and gaming businesses operated by the MLA, the agency said.

Another brother, K C Nagaraj, was also covered in the raids.

The searches additionally revealed the alleged involvement of Anil Gowda, brother of Congress leader Kusuma H.

Veerendra, 49, won the 2023 Assembly election from Chitradurga on a Congress ticket, securing 59.84% of the votes polled. He is a director in two Goa-registered firms — Puppys Technology Pvt Ltd and Rathna Gold Pvt Ltd — and in Bengaluru-based Anology Gaming India Pvt Ltd.

DH tried reaching the MLA, but his phones were switched off.

Assets seized

The ED said it had seized immovable assets worth about Rs 61.35 crore from Shantesh Gureddi and Jyothi Shantesh Gureddi, directors of Sri Kumaraswamy Mineral Exports Pvt Ltd (SKMEPL).

The action was taken under Section 37A(1) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, for allegedly holding foreign assets in violation
of FEMA rules, the agency said.

SKMEPL operates the Ramanadurga Iron Ore Mine in the Sandur reserve forest in Ballari district, with an annual production capacity of 2.80 million tonnes, according to its website.