The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) raided premises linked to Chitradurga Congress MLA K. C. Veerendra and his associates in Bengaluru and Challakere on Tuesday.The ED has claimed that just one of the gateways, collected from the betting apps run by Mr. Veerendra was more than ₹2,000 crore in a short span of time, indicating the extent of the operation.The ED had on August 28 raided 31 premises linked to Mr. Veerendra and his associates in Challakere, Bengaluru, Panaji, Gangtok, Jodhpur, Hubballi and Mumbai, in a case related to illegal online betting. Mr. Veerendra was arrested from Gangtok, Sikkim and is in ED custody.Mr. Veerendra has been running several online betting sites in the name of King567, Raja567, Lion567, among others, the ED said. “It has also been revealed that several gateways have been used for routing payments collected through these websites. The money collected from these websites being operated by Mr. Veerendra and his associates through a single gateway alone is more than ₹2,000 crore in a short span of time. It has been revealed that K. C. Thippeswamy, Mr. Veerendra’s brother, was operating several Dubai-based entities related to the call centre services and gaming business of Mr. Veerendra,” the ED said.“During the course of the investigation and during raids on Tuesday, the ED seized five high-end vehicles. Further, ₹55 crore in various accounts has been frozen. This includes ₹40.69 crore in nine bank accounts and one Demat account of Mr. Veerendra, and ₹14.46 crore in 262 mule accounts recovered from one of the accused gateways through which money collected by multiple gaming websites being operated by Mr. Veerendra and his associates were being routed,” the ED said.“Investigation revealed that the said mule accounts are provided by various middlemen to the operators of these gaming websites, in this case Pruthvi N. Raj, nephew of Mr. Veerendra, who in turn uses the same to collect the funds received from various players. These transactions include layering the said money deposits of players through escrow accounts of gateways and then making settlement in mule accounts which are controlled by the gaming site owners. These funds are further siphoned off in various ways, including through hawala transactions. It has also been revealed that Mr. Veerendra and his associates in Dubai are operating several gaming websites by using various gateways and fintech service providers for layering of funds and for masking their illicit activities as genuine e-commerce businesses,” the ED said in a statement on Wednesday. Published - September 03, 2025 10:01 pm IST