'No Summons, Complete Non-Application Of Mind By ED': Wife Of Congress MLA Arrested In Illegal Betting Case To Karnataka High Court

The wife of the Congress MLA KC Veerendra arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in an illegal betting case told the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday (September 10) that the grounds of arrest showed complete non-application of mind by the central agency and not one summons was issued to him before arrest. 

Senior advocate Siddharth Dave submitted before Justice MI Arun,

"I am elected Member of Legislative Assembly. I have residence in Bengaluru or place where I am elected, my addresses will be know to all. I would have filed election affidavit and assets would be disclosed. If not disclosed Election petition would be filed, but these grounds of arrest show complete non-application of mind. I am arrested from Sikkim and I am not present here when raids are conducted and they say I have not cooperated," Dave said.

He further submitted that not one summons under Section 50 PMLA was sent to the MLA between registration of the ECIR in July till his arrest.

"In my limited experience, ordinarily ED issues notice under section 50 asking me to appear and give details. In the present case not one summons is issued. This has very serious consequences. If arrest power are vested with them it has to be exercised properly and reasons to believe has to be present. When was I called? How am I being uncooperative or misleading? Nothing of that at all. These grounds of arrest come in reasons to believe given in writing. I am submitting that there is complete non-application of mind by ED in this case," he added. 

The court was hearing RD Chaitra's plea seeking to declare her husband's arrest by the Enforcement Directorate as illegal, arbitrary and violative of his fundamental rights under Article 19 & 21 and for a direction to release him.

Dave submitted that the predicate offence was registered under Section 420 (cheating) IPC in 2011. He said that as per chargesheet in the 2011 case about cricket betting, no charge was framed under section 420 when it went to trial and the accused were acquitted in 2014.

"ED does not mention that no charges came to be framed under section 420 of IPC and acquittal in 2014. Surely if they have FIR and chargesheet they would have the acquittal order also," he said. 

He then referred to a 2015 FIR also registered under section 420 containing same allegations of betting, which was quashed in 2016 by High Court. 

He said that a third case was registered in 2016 where the MLA was not named as accused.

He said that a fourth FIR was registered in 2022 where the MLA is named as fourth person. He said that the MLA was not charge sheeted in this case.

Dave referred to the grounds of arrest by the ED and said, "None of them are in the predicate offence. After registration of the ECIR on the four FIR the activities described in grounds of arrest are completely different". 

He also said that two other FIRs referred by ED were closed in 2024. 

"ED surely has wherewithal to find out what happened in the FIR's. There is not one FIR of illegal betting against me where I am convicted etc. Subsequent remands (by court) does not validate illegal arrest," he added. 

He said that in the present case no summons were issued to the MLA nor was any explanation sought but he was still termed as "non-cooperative". 

Veerendra was arrested in connection with an alleged illegal online and offline betting racket. He was arrested under provisions of the PMLA.

According to the ED, the accused is involved in betting operations which spans across multiple states. The agency suspects that the seized assets are linked to proceeds of crime generated through the illegal betting network.

The matter is now listed on Thursday (September 11) at 2:30pm. 

Case Title: R D Chaitra AND Directorate of Enforcement

Case No: WP 26754/2025

Appearane for petitioner: Senior Advocates Siddhartha Dave, HS Chandramouli, Kiran Javli ,Prateek Chandramouli, Rajath, Nakul Chengappa, Aaron Thomas and Shashwath

ASG Aravind Kamath a/w CGC Madhukar Deshpande for respondent