Karnataka High Court Declares ED Arrest Of Gameskraft Founders Illegal, Orders Release From Jail Forthwith
The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday (June 16) declared the arrest of three GamesKraft Founders–Vikas Taneja, Deepak Singh and Prithviraj Singh, by the Enforcement Directorate(ED ) as illegal and directed the prison authorities to release the petitioners from jail expeditiously. [2026 LiveLaw (Kar) 209]
The single judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna in his order said:
“..The writ petitions are allowed…and arrests of the petitioners are declared to be contrary to law… In consequence thereof, the petitioners shall be set at liberty forthwith…registry directed to intimate the prison authorities to release the petitioners from jail…”
A detailed copy of the order is awaited.
For context, the trio had moved the high court challenging their arrest by the ED on May 7 at Gurgaon and subsequent ED remand.
Notably, on May 19, a sessions court had remanded the founders to judicial custody till June 2, 2026.
The high court had on January 22 stayed ED's investigation against Gameskraft Technologies after a closure report was filed in the FIR registered for the predicate offence at Bengaluru, noting that once the FIR is closed, the foundation for ECIR from November 2025 had vanished.
The ED had then told the court that if the agency finds other offences in the course of investigation, then it can update the ECIR. There were at least 6 similar FIRs, the ASG had told the court on January 22. ED has accused Gameskraft of tampering with the game results and luring customers to make large deposits.
Gameskraft Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (GTPL), an online intermediary company incorporated in June 2017 that runs technology platforms, allowed users to play skill-based online games against each other, such as real money rummy games. The company had over 10 Lakh users from across India, and is currently headquartered in Bangalore.
During the hearing on May 14, ED's counsel Deepak Singh had pointed out that the present ECIR stemmed from three FIRs registered in Telangana, while a similar ECIR had already been stayed by the High Court.
On May 19, the founders argued before the High Court that their arrest in the PMLA case was not based on any new tangible material, and questioned the agency on what prevented it from issuing a summons instead of outrightly arresting them. They further argued that the arrest was a predetermined exercise to bypass an earlier stay order granted in an identical matter.
Case Title: Deepak Singh v. Enforcement Directorate & connected matters
Case No: WP 15130/2026 (and connected matters WP 15277/2026 & WP 15278/2026)
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Kar) 209