Investigating a path of greater than Rs 331 crore deposited in a checking account over eight months in an unlawful betting app-linked money-laundering case, ED officers landed on the doorways of a bike-taxi driver working with a widely known cab aggregator to earn two sq. meals a day.
Picture used for representational functions solely. {Photograph}: ANI Photograph
The surprised investigators misplaced no time to detect that this was a basic case of a “mule” account getting used to pump soiled cash.
Officers advised PTI that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) stumbled upon the Rapido bike driver whereas investigating the 1xbet on-line betting-linked money-laundering case.
A response from Rapido on the event is awaited.
It was discovered that the driving force’s checking account obtained deposits price Rs 331.36 crore between August 19, 2024, and April 16, 2025, the officers stated.
Alarmed by the “suspicious” multi-crore-rupee transactions in a brief interval of eight months, the federal company performed a raid on the deal with supplied within the driver’s financial institution data.
The sleuths came upon that the driving force lived in a two-room shanty in a modest Delhi locality and remained out of his home the complete day as he drove his bike to eke out a dwelling.
What additional attracted the ED’s gaze was {that a} sum of greater than Rs 1 crore, out of the over Rs 331 crore deposits, was used to pay the bills of a “grand vacation spot marriage ceremony” at a luxurious resort in Rajasthan’s lake metropolis of Udaipur.
Based on the officers, the marriage is linked to a younger politician from Gujarat who might be summoned for questioning quickly.
The motive force is known to have advised the ED investigators throughout his questioning that he neither knew something concerning the financial institution transactions nor may he determine the bride, groom or their households whose marriage ceremony occasion in Udaipur was “funded” via his account.
The ED suspects that the driving force’s checking account was a “mule” platform.
A mule account is used to funnel illicit funds generated from monetary crimes and the precise proprietor will not be its consumer. Such accounts are created utilizing faux or employed KYC, the place somebody lends their account in lieu of a fee.
The ED discovered that the account obtained “giant” deposits from a number of unidentified sources and these had been “swiftly” re-routed to different suspicious accounts.
One of many sources of the funds despatched into this checking account is linked with unlawful betting, the officers stated.
The company is now verifying extra sources and locations of the transactions that befell on this account.
The company had just lately hooked up belongings price crores of rupees of former cricketers Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina as a part of the 1xbet probe, even because it questioned quite a few different cricketers and celebrities.
