The Enforcement Directorate on Sunday said the prime accused in the gamling app scam case is untraceable and seized Rs 17.32 crore after raiding the promoters of a Kolkata-based mobile gaming company as part of a money laundering probe.The agency, official sources said, is looking into some of the app promoters’ “political ties” and wants to find out the real recipients of that money, even as it investigates the possible routing of funds spent by gullible players through some “Chinese ‘controlled’ entities.”
A photo released by the federal agency showed several bundles of Rs 500 notes along with several in denominations of Rs 2,000, Rs 200 and Rs 100 stacked on a bed displaying the abbreviation ED. Sources said the cash was recovered from a property which has an address given as ‘F 7. N A Khan’ and is located in the Garden Reach area of ​​Kolkata. The ED said in a statement that “Aamir Khan, the prime accused has not been found and is not traceable”. “Various incriminating documents were found and seized during the search. Cash amounting to Rs 17.32 crore was found and seized during the search,” the statement said.
Agency officials called at least five bank note counters and called bank employees to ascertain the exact value of the cash. The truck later transported the cash, which was stored and sealed in large steel cases to be deposited in the bank. The search was conducted at half a dozen sites associated with a gaming app called “E-Nuggets,” sites associated with Khan and others. CRPF personnel accompanied the ED teams at places like Garden Reach, Park Street and Mominpur around the West Bengal capital, among others.
In August, the ED seized cash worth about Rs 50 crore along with jewelery and gold after it raided premises associated with Arpita Mukherjee, an alleged aide to former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee. Both were arrested by the agency. The latest raids have sparked a fresh war of words between West Bengal’s ruling TMC and the BJP. Senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) minister and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim said his party had nothing to do with the businessman in question, but alleged that the Center wanted to divert investors from the state by spreading fear of “harassment” by federal agencies.
The BJP dismissed the allegations saying the raids were only against unscrupulous traders and asked the TMC leader if he had something to hide. Hakim wondered whether the ED’s investigations into money laundering cases were limited to states ruled by non-BJP parties like West Bengal. “If Rs 7 crore has been discovered, the source of this money should definitely be investigated. But what about Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, who cheated more than Rs 7,000 crore? Why was their wrongdoing not revealed before they left (India)?”
“There are businessmen in BJP-ruled states and they may have amassed a large amount of money as well,” he said. “Does this mean that the raids will be targeted selectively against traders from non-BJP-ruled states like Bengal? This is to discourage investors from coming to Bengal for fear of harassment by central agencies,” said a TMC leader. Reacting to Hakim’s comments, BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya claimed that such statements come out of fear as people are aware of the “unholy nexus” between money laundering and the TMC.
“The ED raid is not against the business community in general. It is only against unscrupulous businessmen. Does the former Minister of State for Transport have something to hide?” added Bhattacharya. The money laundering case stems from an FIR filed by the Kolkata Police against the company and its backers in February 2021. This FIR was registered at the Park Street police station on the basis of a complaint filed by the Federal Bank authorities in a Kolkata court, the ED said.
Aamir Khan, son of businessman Nesar Ahmed Khan, launched the mobile gaming app E-Nuggets, which was designed to deceive the public, the agency alleged. “In the initial period, users were rewarded with a commission and the wallet balance could be withdrawn without any problems. “This ensured the initial confidence of users and they started investing larger amounts for a higher percentage of commission and a larger number of purchase orders,” he said. The ED said that after a “handsome amount” was collected from the public, the downloads from the said app were suddenly stopped on one pretext or the other such as system update and investigation by law enforcement agencies.
Later, all data, including profile information, was deleted from the application servers. It was then that users caught on to the trick, ED said. Official sources said the agency was investigating whether the app and its operators had links to other “Chinese-controlled” apps that provided loans at exorbitant rates to unsuspecting individuals. In many cases, borrowers ended their lives after being threatened by loan servicers to pay up.
The operations of online gaming businesses are under the scrutiny of investigative agencies. The Income Tax department in February raided a Mumbai-based group involved in online betting and cricket playing. Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairman Nitin Gupta recently told PTI that the department found that around 8 lakh (80,000 crore) players were registered on this gaming portal and the gross earnings found in this case was Rs 58,000 crore. last three years.
The CBDT said in a statement shortly after the raids that the department found a “cash” turnover of Rs 600 crore made by the company in six months. All these transactions and earnings in the Mumbai case were not reported to the tax authorities, according to official sources.
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