‘Illegal’ betting: ED arrests Karnataka Congress MLA

“Incriminating material seized during search proceedings indicate complex layering of cash and other funds. To further identify the proceeds of crime, K C Veerendra was arrested from Gangtok on 23.08.2025 and produced before Judicial Magistrate, Gangtok, Sikkim and transit remand was obtained for producing him before jurisdictional court in Bangalore,” the ED said.

The searches on Veerendra’s properties were linked to “the matter of illegal online and offline betting”, the ED said in an official statement on Saturday. The development came close on the heels of Parliament passing a bill to ban online real money-based gaming activities.

Over 10 days, the central agency has conducted searches on Veerendra and Satish Sail, two wealthy Karnataka Congress MLAs who declared assets to the tune of ₹134 crore and ₹54 crore, respectively, during the 2023 Karnataka Assembly polls.

On Friday and Saturday, the ED carried out searches at 31 locations linked to Veerendra. “Search has revealed that the accused is running several online betting sites in the name of King567, Raja567, etc. Further, the brother K C Thippeswamy of the accused is operating 3 business entities from Dubai viz. Diamond Softech, TRS Technologies, Prime9Technologies which are related to the call centre services and gaming business of K C Veerendra,” the ED said.

The searches were conducted at Gangtok in Sikkim; Chitradurga, Bangalore and Hubli in Karnataka; Jodhpur in Rajasthan; Mumbai in Maharashtra; and Goa. The searches in Goa were at five casinos owned by Veerendra, including Puppy’s Casino Gold, Ocean Rivers Casino, Puppy’s Casino Pride, Ocean 7 Casino, and Big Daddy Casino.

The ED has reported the seizure of “approximately ₹ 12 crore in cash, including approximately ₹ 1 crore in foreign currency, gold Jewellery worth ₹ 6 crore (approx.), silver articles around 10 kg, along with four vehicles…”. The ED has also frozen 17 bank accounts and two bank lockers.

Property documents related to the MLA’s brother, K C Nagaraj, and his son, Pruthvi N Raj, have also been seized. Veerendra’s brother, K C Thippeswamy, and Raj were handling the operations of the online gaming business from Dubai, the ED stated.

Who is K C Veerendra?

K C Veerendra is considered to be a close associate of Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar. Among the premises linked to Veerendra that were searched by the ED on Friday was that of Anil Gowda, the brother of Congress R R Nagar MLA candidate Kusuma G, a close associate of Shivakumar’s brother and former MP D K Suresh.

Veerendra is the son-in-law of Kannada film actor Doddanna and was arrested in 2016 by the CBI for allegedly attempting to launder money during the demonetisation period. He was arrested by the CBI after income tax officials seized ₹ 5.7 crore of cash in new ₹2,000 notes in a secret chamber in the bathroom of his Chitradurga home.

The IT searches in 2016—Veerendra had been identified as a hawala and casino operator—also resulted in the seizure of 28 kg of gold and 4 kg of jewellery, apart from ₹ 5.7 crore of cash in ₹ 2,000 notes and ₹ 90 lakh cash in old ₹ 100 notes from the secret chamber.

The CBI alleged that the seized currency was obtained by the then businessman by unauthorisedly exchanging the demonetised currency of ₹ 500 and ₹ 1,000 denominations from various banks through agents and middlemen.

Searches at properties of Congress Karwar MLA Satish Sail

On August 13 and 14, the ED had conducted searches at multiple locations in Karnataka, Goa, Mumbai and Delhi linked to the mining businessman and Congress MLA from Karwar Satish Sail, 58. Sail was recently convicted by a special court in Bengaluru for involvement in illegal mining during the tenure of the BJP in Karnataka from 2008-13.

“These operations are part of an on-going investigation into Satish Krishna Sail @ Satish Sail, and others persons /entities i.e. M/s AshapuraMinechem Ltd, M/s Shri Lal Mahal Ltd, M/s Swastik Steels (Hospet) Pvt Ltd, M/s ILC Industries Ltd, M/s Sri Lakshmi Venkateshwara Minerals Ltd, who were convicted by the Hon’ble Special Court for MPs and MLAs Bangalore, for illegal export of iron ore fines carried out by M/s. Shree Mallikarjun Shipping Pvt. Ltd. in collusion of other persons/entities,” the ED said in a statement last week.

“The search action resulted in seizure of cash ₹ 1.41 Crore from the residence of Satish Krishna Sail and cash of ₹ 27 Lakh from the office premises of M/s Sri Lal Mahal Ltd. Further, gold weighing 6.75 kg in the form of gold jewellery/bullion was also seized from the bank locker of the Sail family,” the ED added.

“Bank accounts of accused persons/entities i.e. M/s Shree Mallikarjun Shipping Pvt Ltd, Satish Krishna Sail, M/s Ashapura Minechem Ltd etc, containing ₹ 14.13 Crore (Approx.) balance has been frozen during the search operations,” the agency further said.

In the 2023 Assembly polls in Karnataka, Veerendra had declared assets to the tune of ₹ 134 crore, and Sail had declared assets worth ₹ 54 crore.