ED questions Mallika Sherawat, TV actor Pooja Banerjee in cash laundering case linked to Pakistani betting web site | Bollywood

The federal company had undertaken recent searches on this case final week in Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune as a part of the probe towards portal Magicwin. (Additionally learn: ‘Bollywood wasn’t prepared for me’; how Mallika Sherawat confronted the business’s brutal backlash)

Mallika, Pooja file statements

Sources stated the company had requested Sherawat and TV actor Pooja Banerjee to answer some queries on this case by e mail or by an official consultant.

They stated 48-year-old Sherawat submitted her assertion to the ED’s Ahmedabad workplace final week by sending her replies by an authorised consultant and e mail whereas Banerjee deposed earlier than the investigation officer (IO) and bought her assertion recorded beneath the provisions of the Prevention of Cash Laundering Act (PMLA).

Sherawat has acted in quite a lot of Hindi motion pictures whereas Banerjee has performed a task within the TV sequence Kasautii Zindagii Kay.

The 2 are understood to have undertaken some promotion exercise associated to Magicwin and they’re, prima facie, not discovered to be an accused within the case, as per the sources. The company is anticipated to query some extra actors and celebrities on this case quickly.

The ED, in an announcement issued on Tuesday, stated a “launch celebration” held for the portal, the place a number of “B-town celebrities” attended and endorsed Magicwin, is beneath its scanner.

These celebrities additionally did video and picture shoots for Magicwin and posted them on their social media accounts for its “promotion”. Ads have been additionally achieved by hoardings out of house (OOH) in varied components of India together with Gujarat and Maharashtra, the company stated.

The case towards Magicwin

The cash laundering case is predicated on an FIR registered by the cybercrime unit of the Ahmedabad Police in Gujarat. Magicwin, in response to the company, is a “betting” web site “guised” as a gaming portal that’s “truly owned” by Pakistani nationals.

The operations of this web site are largely dealt with by Indian nationals working or settled in Dubai, it stated. “The betting video games being proven on the web site are initially performed within the Philippines and different nations which permit betting actions,” it stated.

Nevertheless, as per the investigation, the identical is “re-telecast” on Magicwin’s web site by copying the APIs (utility programming interface) of the unique video games.

The company stated betting actions like deposits, inserting of betting and withdrawal are “managed” by the “homeowners” of Magicwin.

The ED claimed its probe discovered that the cash, deposited within the financial institution accounts by the gamers/betters, was “diverted” by layers of “shell and mule” financial institution accounts and additional the revenue a part of the homeowners was invested in crypto belongings, withdrawn in money or despatched to Dubai by Hawala channels.

The profitable quantities of the gamers/betters have been transferred to their financial institution accounts by service provider accounts of varied shell corporations maintained with cost gateways. These quantities have been additionally transferred to the participant’s checking account by home cash switch, it stated.

The income generated by these betting web sites are greater than 50 per cent of the full deposits made by the gamers, it stated.