New Delhi, April 16 -- The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday searched the premises of online travel booking portal EaseMyTrip's co-founder Nishant Pitti as part of fresh multi-state raids in the Mahadev online betting app linked money laundering case, officials said.
The raids covered 55 locations including in Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Indore, Jaipur, Chennai and Sambalpur in Odisha, the sources said.
The latest searches are a result of some fresh evidence gathered in the case, they said.
The premises and office of 39-year-old Pitti, also chairman of EaseMyTrip, in Delhi are also being covered, they said.
According to the company's website, EaseMyTrip.com was established in 2008 and was founded by the Pitti brothers-- Nishant, Rikant, and Prashant.
The ED suspects some "proceeds of crime" from the illegal operations of the app (application) went to entities linked to Pitti. The Mahadev betting app case made headlines after the federal probe agency claimed a few years back that many high-ranking politicians and bureaucrats from Chhattisgarh are alleged to have been involved in the illegal operation and subsequent monetary transactions linked to the app.
The ED had said the app is an umbrella syndicate arranging online platforms for enabling illegal betting websites to enrol new users, create user IDs and laundering of money through a layered web of benami bank accounts.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.