The Enforcement Directorate arrested Karnataka Congress MLA K.C. Veerendra Puppy in connection with an illegal online and offline betting racket.
The arrest was made after the ED conducted a two-day raid across 32 locations in the country. The search operation uncovered ₹12 crore in cash, including ₹1 crore in foreign currency, from the location. They also seized gold valued at ₹6 crore, 10 kg of silver articles, and four high-end vehicles.
Instagram posts surfaced that claimed that the MLA owned the biggest car collection in Chitradurga. The ownership of the cars is being investigated.
17 bank accounts and two bank lockers were also frozen under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Who is KC Veerendra Puppy?
K.C. Veerendra, the 50-year-old legislator from Challakere Chitradurga, owns about ₹134 crore in assets according to myneta.info. He was an agriculturist by profession. He completed his B.Com in 1999 from the HPPC government First Grade College. He is also the son-in-law of Kannada film actor Doddanna.
The investigation by the ED revealed a big betting network, including operations from Dubai and links to multiple casinos. The raids, conducted on August 22 and 23, spanned cities including Bengaluru, Hubli, Mumbai, Jodhpur, Goa, and Gangtok, with searches also targeting five well-known casinos, Big Daddy Casino, Ocean Rivers Casino, Puppy’s Casino Pride, Ocean 7 Casino, and Puppy’s Casino Gold.
He got the nickname puppy because he is associated with several casino games titled “puppy”.
The Enforcement Directorate today arrested KC Veerendra, Karnataka's MLA from Chitradurga constituency, from Gangktok in connection with illegal online and offline betting case and recovered amount of approximately Rs 12 crore in cash, including approximately one crore in foreign… pic.twitter.com/HXpF1auWlD
— ANI (@ANI) August 23, 2025
The ED, however, did not specify from where the cash and property were seized. He was accused of illegally transferring money to online gaming app companies.
Apart from charges for running illegal betting racks, he has also racked up charges for public nuisance, bribery, and undue influence at elections.
Veerendra is alleged to be running online betting sites like King 567, Raja 567, Puppies 003, Ratna Gaming, etc. His brother KC Thippeswamy is alleged to be running three business entities from Dubai: Diamond Softech, TRS Technologies and Prime 9 Technologies. The firms provide gaming-related call centre services for the betting operations.
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In 2016, Veerendra was arrested after investigators recovered ₹5.70 crore of new currency from his bathroom. On December 10 that year, the Income Tax department had also seized the amount along with 32kg of gold biscuits and jewellery and ₹90 lakh worth of old notes in Challakere. He was assisted by bank officials in the criminal conspiracy.
Documents related to property and financial transactions were recovered from Veerendra’s brother, K C Nagaraj’s residence and from his Nephew, Pruthvi N Raji.
Veerendra was arrested in Gangtok, Sikkim, where he was travelling with associates to explore the leasing of a land-based casino in the region. The ED said that both domestic and international players were involved in a complex layering of cash and funds. He has been booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in an "illegal" online and offline betting case.
His brother KC Thippeswamy and Pruthvi are also under the scanner for their role in managing the betting operations and facilitating online transfers.
