Karnataka High Court Releases Gameskraft Founders' Plea Against ED Arrest From Vacation Bench, Posts Matter To June 03

The Karnataka High Court has adjourned till June the plea filed by Founders of gaming company Gameskraft, challenging their arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering.

This, after Senior Counsel CV Nagesh appearing for a Founder and ASG SV Raju appearing for ED told the vacation bench of Justice K.V Aravind that they would require another 2 hours to conclude their submissions.

“…Considering that this matter was heard initially on an earlier date by a vacation bench and considering the required time for the senior counsels as requested by them for both parties, the matter cannot be heard by this vacation bench. In that view, the matter is released from further hearing and list this matter on June 3”.

Counsel for the petitioners also informed the high court that the petitioners' bail petitions were also listed for hearing before the trial court. 

Gameskraft Founders Deepak Singh, Prithvi Raj Singh, and Vikas Taneja had moved the high court challenging their arrest by the ED on May 7 at Gurgaon and subsequent ED remand. 

Notably, on May 19, Principal City Civil & Sessions Judge M Chandrasekhar Reddy had  remanded the founders to judicial custody till June 2, 2026.

For context, 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 Karnataka 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)