Court refuses pre-arrest bail to three partners of firm linked to Fairplay betting case

MUMBAI: Court denies anticipatory bail to three firm owners linked to ₹13 crore laundering case involving Fairplay, accused of illegal cricket broadcasts.

MUMBAI: A court has rejected the anticipatory bail plea of the three owners of a firm that was allegedly involved in laundering around ₹13 crore linked with Fairplay, a platform accused of illegally broadcasting cricket matches and offering betting services in India.

Court refuses pre-arrest bail to three partners of firm linked to Fairplay betting case

The applicants — Santosh Singh, 41; Mukesh Kumar, 27; and Monu Kanskar, 27 — had moved the court for anticipatory bail after the Enforcement Directorate, which is investigating the case, summoned them for interrogation. The trio allegedly did not respond to the summons.

In an order passed on February 10, the special sessions judge AC Daga observed that there is “ample material on record” to show that a part of the proceeds of crime, worth ₹13 crore, had been transferred to the bank account of the applicants’ partnership firm, Maa Sharda Sales.

Earlier, special public prosecutor Arvind Aghav contended that Maa Sharda Sales’ HDFC bank account had received an amount exceeding ₹13 crore between July 2023 and June 2024. The funds were transferred to launder the proceeds of crime, according to the prosecution.

However, the advocates for the accused submitted that there was no evidence connecting the three men with the crime. When the ED seized their firm’s bank account in June 2024, it had a balance of ₹28 lakh, said the defence, led by advocate Subir Sarkar. The defence added that the accused have no holding or share in Fairplay.

However, the court said that there is prima facie material on record connecting the accused and their partnership firm with the proceeds of crime under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). “Though the partnership firm was established after registration of the FIR, still, the fact remains that after the generation of proceeds of crime from the predicate offence, if anyone handles with it or deals with it, then [it] is guilty of the offence…,” observed the court.

The court also held that unless the ED is given an opportunity for custodial interrogation of the accused, it will not be able to determine the ultimate use of the proceeds of crime.

The ED had initiated its money laundering investigation based on an FIR registered by Maharashtra cyber police in April 2023 against Dubai-based Fairplay Sports LLC and other linked firms. The FIR was based on a complaint filed by a representative of Reliance Industries-backed broadcaster Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd, which alleged that the accused entities had caused the company a loss of over ₹100 crore by illegally broadcasting Indian Premier League cricket matches in 2023.

Earlier this week, the ED made its first arrests in the case — two brothers, Chirag Shah and Chintan Shah, who were allegedly associated with the Fairplay mobile app and used to supervise its technological aspects and software development.