Karnataka High Court declares arrest of three directors of Gameskraft as illegal, orders their release from prison
The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday declared the arrest of Deepak Singh, Vikas Taneja and Prithviraj Singh, directors of Gameskraft Technologies Pvt. Ltd., by the
The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday declared the arrest of Deepak Singh, Vikas Taneja and Prithviraj Singh, directors of Gameskraft Technologies Pvt. Ltd., by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in an alleged fraud-linked money-laundering case as contrary to law, and ordered their release from prison. Justice M. Nagaprasanna pronounced the verdict, the copy of which is yet to be released. “Petitions are allowed.
The arrest of these petitioners is declared contrary to law. As a consequence thereof, the petitioners shall be set at liberty forthwith. The Registry is directed to intimate the prison authorities to enable release of these petitioners...”, the judge said, reading out only the operative portion of the judgement in the open court. The ED, which initiated the probe based on First Information Reports (FIRs) registered by the Telangana police against the company, has alleged that Gameskraft ran online gaming platforms that manipulated gameplay, cheated users through deceptive practices, and laundered proceeds through bogus expenditure entries and cash transactions.
It said the company falsely assured transparency, security and absence of bots, while deploying automated bot accounts to compete with genuine users without their knowledge or consent. According to the ED, users were lured by early winnings and smooth withdrawals, but later faced losses due to bot-driven manipulation, amounting to a collective loss of ₹1,154 crore to the users. Complaints indicated severe financial distress, including psychological harm to the users of the gaming platform.
The ED alleged that proceeds were laundered via foreign investments, dividends, mutual funds, bonds, and movable and immovable assets.
The BriefWire