The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has made the arrest of Karnataka Congress MLA KC Veerendra, known as KC Veerendra Puppy, in an illegal online betting case. It was made on Saturday in Gangtok, Sikkim, one day after ED officers carried out a massive search at a number of premises associated with the legislator.
In the raids, the officials recovered an enormous amount of money: almost 12 crore Indian rupees, 6 crore rupees of gold jewellery, 1 crore rupees of foreign currency, and four luxury cars. One vehicle which caught the eye of the many vehicles confiscated was a red Mercedes that had a license plate belonging to the state of Karnataka.
This was what made the raids extra sensational as it was on the discovery of a vast collection of casino membership and reward cards to some of the most famous gambling center in the world. These include cards at MGM Casino, Bellagio, Metropolitan Casino, Marina Casino and Casino Jewel. Besides, the ED has recovered various credit and debit cards of different banks, luxury hospitality cards of branded hotel chains like Taj, Hyatt and The Leela.
The search was conducted across various states, as per reports, but the agency did not specify which particular recovery was from which particular location. Images of the items confiscated during the operation posted by the ED showed the sheer magnitude of those confiscated during the operation.
An elected official who is suspected of being a significant investor in illegal betting online is also in offline betting; in this case is KC Veerendra, 50, representing Chitradurga constituency. Another factor that proves his relation to gambling rackets is that he claims he was in Gangtok during his arrest because he was to finalise a deal involving leasing a casino.
This arrest has now heightened the current investigation into the issue of political connections on illegal betting and money laundering in the region.
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