BENGALURU: Noting that the material with the ED justified the arrest of Chitradurga Congress MLA K C Veerendra for allegedly cheating people through betting apps and realising the proceeds of the crime, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday dismissed the petition filed by his wife, R D Chaitra, questioning the legality of his arrest.
Stating that the ED had reason to arrest Veerendra under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), Justice MI Arun said: "Thus, under the given facts and circumstances of the case, it has to be considered that there exists a predicate scheduled offence as contemplated under the PMLA, 2002 and there is sufficient material in possession of the ED which gives sufficient reason to believe that the husband of the petitioner is guilty of an offence punishable under the PMLA. It justifies the registration of ECIR and arrest of the husband of the petitioner under the PMLA".
The court noted that the preliminary investigation reveals the involvement of the husband of the petitioner in running the alleged illegal betting apps and benefiting from them, which requires the custodial interrogation of the accused. Thus, in the opinion of the court, the ED had reason to believe that the husband of the petitioner should be arrested under Section 19 of the PMLA, 2002, the court added.
Chaitra prayed to the court to declare that the arrest of her husband was illegal and arbitrary. She contended that the grounds of arrest and the reasons for invoking Section 19 of the PMLA, 2002, are not valid.
But the ED contended that the preliminary investigation has revealed that Veerendra is involved in illegal online betting through apps run by people connected to him. The algorithms of the betting apps are structured in a manner that initially, a person gambling on the website makes money, and he is lured to make larger investments, and thereafter he loses money. This is nothing but cheating, which is a scheduled offence under the PMLA, said the ED.
The ED has also submitted before the court that there is a larger network of several individuals and companies, of which Veerendra is the kingpin, and that huge money is generated by cheating those who use the betting apps. Veerendra is the recipient of the tainted money, which runs into several crores, the ED told the court.
