The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has provisionally attached movable properties to the tune of ₹5.87 crore in the form of balances available in the bank accounts of various individuals and entities in a case related to illegal online betting and gambling under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The ED initiated investigation under PMLA on the basis of an FIR registered by Viveknagar Police Station in Bengaluru on a complaint received from the office of Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI) alleging involvement of companies in online gambling, betting and suspicious illegal activities.
The ED investigation revealed that different companies were registered by the accused persons Shyamala N and Umar Farooq using the documents of other persons.
The HR manager of the companies allegedly illegally purchased many SIM cards and linked them to bank accounts for transacting online. It was further revealed that the group of entities including Rockstar Interactive, Indie World Studio, Falcon Entertainment Agencies, The Next Level Technology, Rift Gamer Technologies, Reality Code Technology, Tenes Solutions, Electronic Virtual Solutions, Zazago Systems, Zynga Interactive, Whale Bytes Technology, Iobitcode Interactive Agency, Oculus Valve Entertainment and Nestra Web Solutions were created with a fraudulent intention to collect amounts from public by cheating them in the name of betting and gambling through sites like bestartech, khelo24bet and betinexchange, said an ED release.
