Congress legislator K C Veerendra, popularly known as Puppy, walked out of Bengaluru's Parappana Agrahara Central Prison on Tuesday evening after a Special Court for People's Representatives granted him bail. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a massive illegal online and offline betting case involving alleged money laundering through shell companies and international casinos.
A Grand Welcome After Prison Release
Upon his release on December 31, 2025, the Chitradurga MLA was greeted by a crowd of enthusiastic supporters. They garlanded him and celebrated his return, marking a stark contrast to his arrest months earlier. Veerendra had been taken into custody by the ED on August 23, 2025, in Gangtok, Sikkim. This followed a series of searches at various properties connected to him and his associates.
The ED's Allegations and Seizures
The federal probe agency has laid out a complex web of financial crimes. According to the ED, Veerendra opened multiple shell companies to launder money. His casinos, allegedly operating in Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Georgia under another person's name, were used to convert illicit cash into legitimate income.
The investigation zeroed in on the King567 online betting application, which was reportedly managed from Dubai primarily by the MLA's nephew, Appu alias Pruthvi N Raj. Evidence, including profit-sharing details for offshore casinos, was allegedly found openly declared on Veerendra's website, 'Puppysworld'.
In two major raids, the ED confiscated assets valued at over Rs 100 crore. The seized items include:
- Luxury cars
- Rs 40.69 crore frozen in 9 bank accounts and one Demat account
- Rs 14.46 crore identified in 262 mule accounts
- 24-carat gold bullion weighing 21.43 kg
- 11 gold-coated silver bars weighing 10.985 kg
- Gold jewellery weighing approximately 1 kg (total precious metal value around Rs 24 crore)
Modus Operandi: Layering Funds Through Mule Accounts
The ED's probe revealed a sophisticated method to hide the illegal origin of funds. The agency claims that middlemen provided mule accounts to the gaming website operators—in this case, Veerendra's nephew. Player deposits were routed through payment gateways and escrow accounts of fintech service providers before being settled into these mule accounts controlled by the accused.
These funds were then allegedly siphoned off using various methods, including hawala transactions. Veerendra and his Dubai-based associates are accused of operating several gaming websites, using gateways and fintech providers to layer the money and disguise their betting operations as legitimate e-commerce businesses.
The case highlights the challenges authorities face in tracking digital betting and cross-border money laundering networks. While Veerendra's release on bail is a temporary relief for him and his supporters, the substantial evidence gathered by the ED sets the stage for a prolonged legal battle.
