Bengaluru/New Delhi

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) seized a corpus amount of goods from arrested Karnataka Congress MLA KC Veerendra 'Puppy'. Investigators believe the accused ran a systemic network of political money laundering using casinos, shell firms, and betting apps.

Veerendra, according to the ED, ran online betting sites like King567, Raja567, Puppy's003, Rathna Gaming, etc. and his brother KC Thippeswamy is alleged to be "operating" three business entities from Dubai named Diamond Softech, TRS Technologies and Prime9Technologies.

Among the seizures in the multi-state raids are a number of international casino membership and reward cards named -- MGM casino, metropolitan casino, Bellagio casino, marina casino, casino jewel, etc.

Multiple credit and debit cards of various banks and membership cards of some 5-star hotels were also seized from various locations which was not informed by the agency.

The agency said it has also frozen about 17 bank accounts and 2 lockers during the searches, even as some Instagram posts claiming the MLA had the "biggest car collection" in Chitradurga with 003 registration number plate are under probe. The ownership and source of funds of these high-end vehicles is being investigated.

The ED also seized property papers and benami documents. The probe is expected to expand into who funded whom, how election money was routed, and whether others had knowledge of these transactions.

Meanwhile, ED sleuths raided the residence of Rajarajeshwari Nagar Congress defeated candidate Kusuma Hanumanthrayappa's brother Anil Gowda in Bengaluru’s RR nagar, Nagarabhavi and Muddinapalya residence's.

 Kusuma, who had unsuccessfully contested from the RR Nagar constituency, is now under the scanner for alleged financial linkages to betting operations.