The Enforcement Directorate executed a dramatic late-night arrest of WinZO Games Pvt. Ltd. Co-founders and Directors Saumya Singh Rathore and Paavan Nanda from Bengaluru on Wednesday, marking a decisive escalation in the federal agency’s ongoing money-laundering investigation into one of India’s largest real-money gaming platforms accused of running illegal online betting operations.

Following their detention, the directors were immediately flown to Delhi and produced before a special PMLA court, which granted ED custody after preliminary hearings. The court has scheduled detailed arguments on the agency’s formal remand application for Thursday, indicating that investigators intend to confront the accused with extensive digital and financial evidence gathered over the past week.

The arrests stem from large-scale search operations conducted between November 18 and 22 at four high-value premises in Delhi and Gurgaon, during which the ED froze proceeds of crime totalling approximately Rs 505 crore in the form of bank balances, fixed deposit receipts, bonds, and mutual fund holdings linked to WinZO Games and its associated entities. The agency has classified these assets as direct proceeds derived from alleged violations of gambling and money-laundering statutes.

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Investigators allege that WinZO systematically operated prohibited real-money betting activities in multiple foreign jurisdictions including Brazil, the United States, and Germany using the same technical infrastructure and payment gateways as its Indian operations, even after the Union government imposed a nationwide ban on online betting on August 22. The company is further accused of retaining approximately Rs 43 crore belonging to Indian users without refunding deposits, while subjecting players to undisclosed algorithmic opponents rather than genuine human competitors and imposing arbitrary restrictions on withdrawals.

A particularly damning revelation involves the transfer of around USD 55 million (equivalent to Rs 489.90 crore) to bank accounts in the United States held in the name of WinZO US Inc., which the ED has designated a shell entity with no independent operations, as all decision-making, server management, and financial oversight remained centralised in India. The probe, initiated on the basis of multiple FIRs alleging cheating, identity theft, KYC misuse, and large-scale fraud, has now expanded into a full-fledged money-laundering investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

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