After questioning former India cricketers Suresh Raina and Shikhar Dhawan, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has now issued summons to another cricketer, Robin Uthappa, in connection with its money laundering probe against several illegal online betting platforms, which use multiple platforms for surrogate advertisements and collect funds from the use, officials said on Tuesday.
Uthappa, the right-handed batter, has been asked to appear at ED headquarters on September 22 and record his statement under the prevention of money laundering act .
Earlier, Raina and Dhawan were questioned by the financial crimes probe agency on August 13 and September 4, respectively in this case.
Former Trinamool Congress (TMC) Member of Parliament (MP) Mimi Chakraborty was questioned on Monday while Bengali actor Ankush Hazra was being questioned on Tuesday by the ED sleuths. Bollywood Actress Urvashi Rautela was also expected to appear before the agency on Tuesday but she had not come to record her statement till filing of this report, officials said.
The ED has been calling several celebrities to understand their links with the betting apps, any endorsement fee earned and the mode of communication between them.
In July, the agency had called the representatives of Google and Meta for questioning as part of this probe.
The financial crimes probe agency is probing multiple illegal online betting platforms and has questioned tech firms, media houses’ representatives who have received money in the form of advertisements from them. Earlier Google and Meta representatives were also called to the ED office in this probe.
Several platforms hosting illegal betting and gambling links, including instances of advertisements placed for them on various social media outlets and app stores, are under the ED scanner.
In 2023, the Union ministry of information and broadcasting issued four advisories to newspapers, broadcast news channels, entertainment channels, publishers of online news and current affairs content, online advertisement intermediaries (like Google and Facebook), and social media platforms to not advertise online betting platforms.
Despite these instructions from the Centre that advertisements of online betting platforms are not permitted, eminent personalities in the field of entertainment and sports endorsed them. These actors and sportspersons are also under the ED’s scanner and they could be summoned soon, according to an ED officer.
According to the information gathered by ED over the past several months, multiple betting platforms, which have been banned over the years, still run their operations by changing names and are promoted by celebrities and social media influencers.
These platforms are in violation of multiple laws and directions by the Indian government, including tax evasion, money laundering, and Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) as money is transferred out of the country illegally. It is estimated that around 220 million Indian users are currently engaged on various betting apps, and 110 million of these are regular users, said the officer.