Karnataka High Court Rejects Plea Seeking Release Of Congress MLA KC Veerendra Arrested In 'Illegal Betting' Case

The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday (October 15) dismissed the petition filed by wife of Congress MLA KC Veerendra for declaring his arrest in an alleged illegal betting case under PMLA as illegal, arbitrary and violative of his fundamental rights and to release him.Justice MI Arun said, "It is only on the ground that one FIR is alive in which 'B' report is filed that allows them (ED) to proceed.""Observations made herein above are in relation to case in hand and if petitioner were to make any application for bail the same would be considered by the court in accordance with law. If the 'B' report were to be accepted by the trial court in FIR no...petitioner would be at liberty to make necessary application for quashing of proceedings against him" the court said. The court had reserved its verdict on the plea on Monday.Veerendra was arrested in connection with an alleged illegal online and offline betting racket. He was arrested under provisions of the PMLA.According to the ED, Veerendra is involved in betting operations which spans across multiple states. The agency suspects that the seized assets are linked to proceeds of crime generated through the illegal betting network.Senior advocate Siddharth Dave appearing for Veerendra's wife had submitted that "Not one summons under Section 50 PMLA was sent to the MLA between registration of the ECIR in July till his arrest from Sikkim.”It was also argued that the predicate offence was registered under Section 420 (cheating) IPC in 2011. He said that as per chargesheet in the 2011 case about cricket betting, no charge was framed under section 420 when it went to trial and the accused were acquitted in 2014.He had then referred to a 2015 FIR also registered under section 420 containing the same allegations of betting, which was quashed in 2016 by the High Court. He said that a third case was registered in 2016 where the MLA was not named as accused. He said that a fourth FIR was registered in 2022 where the MLA is named as fourth person. He said that the MLA was not chargesheeted in that case. As regards to a pending case referred to by ED at Horanhalli, it was said that the offence is not against Veerendra, neither is he a suspect/witness in the case.Dave had also referred to the grounds of arrest by the ED and said, "None of them are in the predicate offence. After registration of the ECIR on the four FIR the activities described in grounds of arrest are completely different". He also said that two other FIRs referred by ED were closed in 2024; at the time of arrest they did not have any valid grounds of arrest with them.Additional Solicitor General Aravind Kamath for the agency had contended that “We already had material and the FIR's only corroborated it. He is not just the recipient of proceeds of crime, it is our allegations that the petitioner is involved in the process of generation, concealment and other elements as mentioned under Section 3 the PMLA, in respect of proceeds of crime.”It was also said that first the agency gathered relevant information available in public domain and also conducted a social media analysis. Preliminary analysis of the information gathered indicated that the Accused was involved in operating casinos in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Georgia and had also set up online betting platforms under the names of King567 and other 567 Gaming universe.The ED had also argued that the accused is in lawful custody and the appropriate remedy would be to challenge the remand order. The agency has said that to contend that detention is illegal is not right."As a result of criminal activity huge amounts of proceeds of crime were generated. It was transferred to tour operators and the petitioner's husband travelled to Dubai. They have home in Dubai, Goa. This has been corroborated with statements. I have not proceeded on the casual opinion that someone is rich so he has committed an offence. We have months of evidence", ASG had argued.It was claimed that having regard to the scale of operation and the volume of games conducted online since 2021, the amount of generation of proceeds of crime is in excess of Rs. 2,000 crores from transaction details submitted by a single payment gateway, as per the investigation as on date. It believes that investigation is required to unearth more proceeds of crimeThe ED had also said that the arrested accused is the protagonist of the criminal activity and proceeds of crime. It was also argued that Money laundering is a standalone offence under PMLA and it can be prosecuted and punished independently of the underlying "predicate offense" from which the "proceeds of crime" were generated.Case Title: R D Chaitra AND Directorate of EnforcementCase No: WP 26754/2025Citation No: 2025 LiveLaw (Kar) 343Appearance: Senior Advocates Siddhartha Dave, HS Chandramouli, Kiran Javli for Advocates Prateek Chandramouli, Rajath, Nakul Chengappa, Aaron Thomas and Shashwath for Petitioner.Additional Solicitor General Aravind...

Karnataka High Court Rejects Plea Seeking Release Of Congress MLA KC Veerendra Arrested In 'Illegal Betting' Case

Mustafa Plumber

Tags