ED arrests Karnataka Congress MLA in illegal betting case
The Chitradurga legislator was arrested from Gangtok, Sikkim, where he was reportedly on a business visit to lease a land casino, ED said
BengaluruThe Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday arrested Congress MLA from Karnataka KC Veerendra ‘Puppy’ under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with an illegal betting case, officials said.
The Chitradurga legislator was arrested from Gangtok, Sikkim, where he was reportedly on a business visit to lease a land casino, ED said. The visit comes a day after the federal agency launched raids at 31 locations in multiple states linked to Veerendra and other accused, seizing ₹12 crore in cash, gold jewellery worth ₹6 crore, and 10kg silver articles, among others.
“Sh. KC Veerendra was arrested from Gangktok on 23.08.2025 and produced before Judicial Magistrate, Gangtok, Sikkim and transit remand was obtained for producing him before jurisdictional Court in Bangalore,” ED said in a press release.
An ED official aware of the details said that the raids were part of a broader probe into an illegal online and offline betting syndicate with alleged national and international links.
Teams of ED officials simultaneously conducted searches at six locations in Chitradurga, 10 in Bengaluru, five in Goa, one each in Hubli, Mumbai, Jodhpur, and five more in Sikkim, the official added.
Searches were also conducted at Veerendra’s Chitradurga residence. The raid began at 5am on Friday and ended at around 1am on Saturday, the official said.
By the end of the operation, officials had recovered around ₹12 crore in cash, including ₹1 crore in foreign currency. In addition, gold worth ₹6 crore, approximately 10 kilograms of silver, four luxury vehicles, 17 bank accounts and two lockers were seized, ED said.
“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 KC Veerendra,” the agency added.
ED officials said that Veerendra will be brought to Bengaluru by Saturday night, and he will be directly taken to the ED office for further interrogation.
Speaking to HT KPCC general secretary Manjunath Bhandari said “The raids were being conducted on opposition leaders only why no raids on BJP leaders ? The law should be one to all,” he added.
“The officials raiding on the persons who violating law , the party have no role in it , it is administrative machinary process , even BJP leaders also raided many times” BJP state unit media wing convener Karunakar Khasale told HT.
