An advocate, who has been recognized as a enterprise associate of arrested Karnataka MLA Okay C Veerendra Pet in his on-line gaming and betting companies, was involved with gaming corporations overseas and directed the discharge of Euro 31,000 in 2021 from a agency the place he was a director to a web-based betting agency primarily based overseas, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged.
The ED had earlier issued a summons on August 24 to the advocate, recognized as Anil Gowda H, in a cash laundering case linked to on-line betting apps and gaming corporations of Pet.
The summons has been challenged within the Karnataka Excessive Courtroom by Gowda as a violation of his rights as knowledgeable advocate.
The Karnataka HC on Monday reserved its orders on the plea by Anil Gowda to cease the ED investigations towards him and issued an interim course to the ED to chorus from taking coercive motion towards the advocate through the pendency of the decision within the case.
Throughout the arguments on Monday, Further Solicitor Common Arvind Kamath, who appeared on behalf of the ED, acknowledged {that a} summons issued to a person by the ED doesn’t result in a reason behind motion.
“Throughout the course of a search, sure cellphones of the petitioner have been seized, and the examination of those telephones has disclosed in depth correspondence with betting app service suppliers primarily based overseas and in India. This requires investigation,” the ASG instructed the HC.
“Now we have already began an investigation primarily based on a predicate offence which signifies the existence of a really large-scale betting app operation,” the ASG stated, arguing the ED has the ability to hunt info concerning against the law registered in accordance with the legislation.
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“Together with the primary accused (Pet), he (Gowda) has created two corporations in India and two in Dubai, and these corporations have correspondence with betting app suppliers, they usually have transferred about 31,000 Euros,” the ASG argued.
In response to the ED arguments, an accountant in an organization wherein each Pet and Gowda have been related had revealed to the ED that cheques have been issued on the instruction of Gowda.
“We’re summoning him for his enterprise involvement, not due to his occupation. He enrolled as a lawyer in 2022, however he opened sure corporations in Dubai in 2021,” the ED stated, including that “our preliminary investigations point out he has been concerned in conducting betting app operations in India.”
“Prima facie, it has been discovered that the petitioner is related with the proceeds of the crime generated by the principal accused (Pet) and others. In the end, the proceeds of crime have been traced to the accounts of ABH Infrastructure and AVSVA Enterprises,” the ED has acknowledged by citing hyperlinks between Gowda and the corporations of the Congress MLA.
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The ED stated that Gowda was paid Euro 25,000 by means of the account of AVSVA Enterprises to discover gaming enterprise alternatives overseas.
Senior Counsel Vikas Pahwa, who appeared for Anil Gowda, argued that the correspondence by Gowda with betting corporations overseas was a part of his authorized companies to the corporations of Veerendra Pet and his relations, who have been concerned within the betting enterprise.
“You don’t have the ability underneath Part 50 (of the PMLA) to name a lawyer for investigation. That may be a bigger query pending earlier than the Supreme Courtroom,” the senior counsel argued. All of the questions raised by the ED “are pertaining to the function as a lawyer, an adviser to the co-accused firm,” he added.
Advocate Anil Gowda H, whose properties have been additionally searched by the ED on August 22 and 23 within the crackdown on the on line casino and gaming companies of Okay C Veerendra, has claimed that the summons issued to him is a violation of Supreme Courtroom directives towards permitting prison proceedings towards attorneys with out judicial oversight.
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Gowda, who’s the brother of Kusuma H, the shedding Congress candidate from the R R Nagar meeting seat in Bengaluru within the 2023 state polls, has known as for the HC to declare the ED probe “unlawful and unhealthy in legislation” and to direct the ED to not take coercive motion towards him.
The ED earlier instructed the court docket that Congress MLA Veerendra Pet has acknowledged that his ties with Gowda weren’t for skilled authorized companies. The ED argued that Gowda was related to the companies of the MLA earlier than enrolling as an advocate.
The cash laundered by means of the betting, gaming companies of the MLA was dealt with in a private capability by Gowda, the ED has alleged. The ED has claimed that Anil Gowda acquired funds by means of Diamond Softech, AVSVA Enterprises and ABH Infrastructure, that are related to Veerendra.
The counsels for Gowda have claimed that he’s not related to Diamond Softech, that he was initially a associate in AVSVA Enterprises however later give up the agency in 2022 and that he attracts a wage as advocate for ABH Infrastructure.
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ED searches resulting in MLA’s arrest
On August 22 and 23, the ED carried out searches at 31 places linked to Okay C Veerendra, the Chitradurga MLA of the Congress, in addition to his brothers and associates. The ED additionally arrested Veerendra in Gangtok, the place he was on a enterprise go to.
“Incriminating materials seized throughout search proceedings signifies advanced layering of money and different funds. To additional establish the proceeds of crime, Okay C Veerendra was arrested from Gangtok on 23.08.2025 and produced earlier than the Judicial Justice of the Peace, Gangtok, Sikkim and transit remand was obtained for producing him earlier than the jurisdictional court docket in Bangalore,” the ED stated.
The searches on the properties of the Chitradurga MLA have been linked to “the matter of unlawful on-line and offline betting”, the ED stated in an official assertion on August 24. The searches on the Congress MLA’s playing and gaming companies got here shut on the heels of Parliament passing a invoice to ban on-line actual money-based gaming actions.
“Search has revealed that the accused is operating a number of on-line betting websites within the identify of King567, Raja567, and so on. Additional, the brother Okay C Thippeswamy of the accused is working 3 enterprise entities from Dubai viz. Diamond Softech, TRS Applied sciences, Prime9Technologies that are associated to the decision centre companies and gaming enterprise of Okay C Veerendra,” ED stated.
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The searches have been performed at Gangtok in Sikkim; Chitradurga, Bengaluru and Hubli in Karnataka; Jodhpur in Rajasthan; Mumbai in Maharashtra; and Goa. The searches in Goa have been at 5 casinos owned by the Congress MLA, together with Pet’s On line casino Gold, Ocean Rivers On line casino, Pet’s On line casino Delight, Ocean 7 On line casino, and Massive Daddy On line casino.
ED has reported the seizure of “roughly Rs 12 Crore in money, together with roughly Rs 1 Crore in international foreign money, Gold Jewelry value Rs 6 Crore (approx.), Silver articles round 10 kgs, together with 4 autos…” The ED additionally froze 17 financial institution accounts and two financial institution lockers.
Who’s Okay C Veerendra?
Okay C Veerendra is taken into account to be a detailed affiliate of Karnataka Deputy CM D Okay Shivakumar. He’s the son-in-law of Kannada movie actor Doddanna and was arrested in 2016 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for trying to launder cash through the demonetisation interval. He was arrested by the CBI after Revenue Tax officers seized Rs 5.7 crore of money in new Rs 2,000 notes in a secret chamber within the lavatory of his Chitradurga dwelling. The case was later closed for need of incriminating proof of unlawful sources for the funds.