The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has charged EaseMyTrip co-founder Nishant Pitti with facilitating the entry of proceeds of illegal betting into the Indian equity market under the guise of foreign portfolio investments (FPIs), in the Mahadev online betting app money laundering case.
ED sought the court’s permission to confiscate the shares, describing them as proceeds of crime under the anti-money laundering law. ED arrested Garg in July after conducting searches at his house in Delhi. Following his arrest, the Delhi BJP removed him as convenor of its economic cell and cancelled his primary membership. Garg is currently in judicial custody.
ED also provisionally attached Pitti’s demat shares worth ₹ 59.60 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The attachment order was issued on September 10 when ED filed its fifth supplementary charge sheet before a special PMLA court in Raipur. ED has arrested 14 people in the case, attached assets worth ₹ 1,885 crore, named 116 accused in its six charge sheets and conducted searches at 190 premises across the country. The money laundering case was registered in October 2022 on the basis of FIRs and charge sheets filed by the Chattisgarh Police.
The agency said its investigation found that Skyexchange, which began operations in 2016, had generated proceeds of crime estimated at around ₹ 12,000 crore.
ED told the court that the latest filing was its sixth charge sheet — one main charge sheet and five supplementary charge sheets — in the case and that its investigation had been completed against all accused except the three.
