Karnataka High Court Seeks ED's Response On Gameskraft Founders' Plea Against Arrest, Remand In Money Laundering Case

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday (May 12) sought Enforcement Directorate's response on a plea filed by Founders of gaming company Gameskraft–Deepak Singh, Prithvi Raj Singh and Vikas Taneja–challenging their arrest and remand under in a money laundering case last week.

ED has accused Gameskraft of tampering with the game results and luring the customers to make large deposits. 

The single judge bench of Justice M.G.S Kamal was hearing the founders' plea challenging their arrest on May 7 in connection with a ECIR (enforcement complaint) arising out of a predicate offence registered in Hyderabad. The plea also challenges Sessions Court's May 9 granting ED custody. The matter will be heard next on May 14.

During the hearing today, senior advocate S. Muralidhar appearing for the petitioner Deepak Singh, argued that the Gameskraft Company is no longer functional and two of the accused, including Deepak, were arrested from Gurugram in an illegal manner by the Bengaluru Police and brought to the jurisdictional court on transit remand.

Senior Advocate Sajan Poovayya appeared for Prithviraj Singh and Vikas Taneja, the other two founders. The matter is next listed on May 14. 

For context, Gameskraft Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (GTPL), is an online intermediary company incorporated in June 2017 that runs technology platforms, allowing 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 headquartered in Bangalore.

In the plea before the High Court, petitioner Deepak Singh has argued that his arrest on May 7 violated the mandatory safeguards under Section 19 PMLA Act and Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. The petitioner also sought the court's direction to quash the contentious ECIR registered against him.

Hence, the plea seeks the court's intervention to quash a May 9 order passed by the Sessions Court on May 9, granting ED the custody of the petitioner. The petitioner also sought the ex parte ad interim relief of releasing him pending the disposal of his writ petition. 

In a separate matter, the high court in an interim order on January 22 stayed ED's investigation against Gameskraft Technologies after a closure report was filed in the FIR registered for the predicate offence, noting that once the FIR is closed, the foundation for ECIR from November 2025 had vanished. The company had sought quashing of ED's November 2025 ED complaint and all consequential proceedings emanating therefrom. 

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, said the ASG on January 22.

Case Title: Deepak Singh v. ED

Case No: WP 15130/2026