ED conducts multi-city raid; Rs 3.3 crore, luxury watches, high-end cars seized
Dabba trading is an unregulated and illegal form of securities trading.
During the operation, agency officials raided four places in Mumbai and seized unaccounted cash of Rs 3.3 crore, as well as luxury watches, jewellery, foreign currency, and luxury vehicles. Agency sleuths also seized cash counting machines.
Sources said that during investigations, some applications like VMoney, VM Trading, Standard Trades Ltd, IBull Capital, LotusBook, 11Starss and GameBetLeague, were being probed for suspected dabba trading.
Agency sources said that the online betting platforms operated through white-label apps and administrator rights that were exchanged on a profit-sharing basis. The probe agency has identified the hawala operators and fund handlers and were examining digital and financial records.
ED initiated a money laundering investigation based on the case filed by Indore's Lasudiya Police Station early this year under sections 319(2) and 318(4) of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The ED was examining financial and operational activities of entities involved in illegal trading and betting platforms.
Explaining their modus operandi, agency sources said that one Vishal Agnihotri, the beneficial owner of VMoney and 11Starss, acquired administrator rights of LotusBook betting platform on a 5% profit-sharing arrangement.
He subsequently transferred these rights to Dhaval Devraj Jain, retaining 0.125% profit while Jain held 4.875%. Dhaval Jain, along with his associate John States alias Pandey, developed a white-label betting platform and supplied it to Vishal Agnihotri to operate 11Starss.in. Mayur Padya alias Padya, a hawala operator, handled cash-based fund transfers and payments for the betting operations, the agency source added.
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