Pramesh S Jain
The special court for MP MLA on Thursday extended ED custody of Veeresh Puppy,arrested on the charges of running betting racket and money laundering .
Puppy,Congress party,MLA from Chitradurga,was produced before the Special Court after his custody for five days ended on Thursday.After hearing the arguments,the court extended the custody.
The ED who had taken Puppy into Five days custody earlier,sought a 14-day custody extension,claiming that Puppy,the key suspect,wasn’t cooperating with the probe.Puppy,however,claimed that he was being mistreated by ED officials in custody.
Puppy was arrested by ED officers in Gangtok,Sikkim, last week and brought to Bengaluru following large-scale raids at 31 locations linked to him and his associates.
ED had recovered Rs.12 crore in cash,including Rs.1 crore in foreign currency: bundles of 100 US Dollars, 10 and 20 British pounds,500 Dirhams and 100 and 50 Euro currency notes.
ED has claimed that searches indicated a complex layering of cash and other funds.
Search has revealed that the accused is running several online betting sites in the name of King567,Raja567,etc.
Further,the brother KC Thippeswamy of the accused is operating three business entities from Dubai,viz, Diamond Softech,TRS Technologies,and Prime9Technologies,related to the call centre services and gaming business of KC Veerendra Puppy,”the ED said in an official statement.
ED investigators also recovered gold jewellery worth ₹6 crore,silver articles weighing approximately 10 kg.Four vehicles were also impounded under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA),2002.
Further,17 bank accounts and two bank lockers were also frozen. Many properties related documents were also seized from the premises of the brother,KC Nagaraj and his son,Pruthvi N Raj. Several incriminating documents were also seized from several premises.
His other associates, namely brother KC Thippeswamy and Pruthvi N Raj,are handling operations of online gaming from Dubai.
Further, it was revealed that KC Veerendra,along with his associates,had travelled to Gangtokvia Bagdogra on a business visit to lease a land casino,”the ED said.
