The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday arrested online money gaming platform WinZO founders Saumya Singh Rathore and Paavan Nanda on money laundering charges.
According to officials, they were arrested in Bengaluru following their questioning at the zonal office of the financial regulator, as reported by news agency IANS.
Rathore and Nanda work as the directors of WinZO Games Pvt Ltd. They were produced before the judge and were then further sent to one-day custody by the court.
The court directed the investigation agencies to produce them at 11.30 am. on Thursday for detailed arguments on the remand application filed by the Department, according to officials.
As per the news agency IANS, the Enforcement Directorate acted after searches conducted by them previously. According to ED, “Funds to the tune of Rs 43 crore of gamers were ‘held’ by the company.”
According to the regulator, this money should be refunded to players after India banned real-money gaming.
While issuing the statement, WinZO said that “Our focus remains on protecting our users and ensuring a secure, trustworthy experience,” and it remains fully compliant with all applicable laws, reported IANS.
Furthermore, the ED had earlier raided the premises of WinZO and Gameskraft, another company offering online gaming, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
ED further conducted search operations under PMLA, 2002, at various locations across Bengaluru and Gurugram.
An official from the investigation agency said that “The raids included the office of Nirdesa Networks Pvt. Ltd. (NNPL), Gameskraft Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (GTPL), and residential premises of its directors and other accused/suspected persons over large-scale fraud, manipulated game outcomes and other allegations,” as cited by news agency IANS.
An official further added that eight bank accounts reportedly having a balance of Rs 18.57 crore are frozen by the agencies. The raids were conducted from November 18 to November 22.
“During the search operations, incriminating devices like mobile phones and laptops are seized,” the official added.
Incriminating devices like mobile phones and laptops have been seized from the premises of directors/founders of the company, and voluminous data backup has been taken from the premises of the Gameskraft company Technologies Pvt Limited.
Even after the ban on real money games by the Union government, an amount of more than Rs 30 crore is still held by the company in its escrow accounts without refunding to the gamers and customers.
(With inputs from IANS)