The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday arrested Karnataka Congress MLA KC Veerendra in Sikkim's Gangtok in a case linked to illegal online betting. The arrest came a day after the probe agency raided at multiple locations linked to the MLA, also known as KC Veerendra 'Puppy'.
The raids led to the discovery of huge piles of cash worth ₹12 crore, casino cards from around the world, four luxury vehicles, approximately ₹1 crore in foreign currency and gold jewellery worth ₹6 crore.
Visuals reportedly shared by the ED showed huge stacks of cash, international casino membership or reward cards like MGM casino, Metropolitan Casino, Bellagio casino, Marina casino, Casino Jewel.
Besides, multiple credit and debit cards of various banks, luxury hospitality membership cards of hotels like Taj, Hyatt and the Leela were also recovered after raids on premises linked to the Congress MLA.
{{/usCountry}}Besides, multiple credit and debit cards of various banks, luxury hospitality membership cards of hotels like Taj, Hyatt and the Leela were also recovered after raids on premises linked to the Congress MLA.
{{/usCountry}}While four vehicles were recovered in total, the picture of a red-coloured Mercedes car with the license plate registered in Karnataka was also seen.
The searches were reportedly carried out in multiple states, but the ED did not specify which recovery was made from which raided location.
KC Veerendra, 50, is an MLA from Chitradurga, and is allegedly part of an illegal online and offline betting case. The ED has reportedly said that the legislator was visiting Gangkok, where he was later arrested, to lease a casino.
"Many property related documents were also seized from the premises of Veerendra's brother K C Nagaraj and his son Pruthvi N Raj. His other associates like another brother K C Thippeswamy are handling operations of online gaming from Dubai," the ED was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
KC Veerendra was being probed under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and premises linked to him and some others were being covered, it was earlier reported.