Delhi HC Upholds ED’s Authority to Treat Betting-Linked Assets as Proceeds of Crime
The Delhi High Court has ruled that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) can classify money and properties derived from cricket betting—when obtained through forgery, cheating, or criminal conspiracy—as proceeds of crime under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). A Bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar dismissed pleas filed against the agency’s provisional attachment orders issued more than a decade ago in connection with an alleged multi-crore international cricket betting scam.
According to the court, assets tainted at inception through criminal activities linked to scheduled offences remain “proceeds of crime” even if later utilised in unrelated downstream activities. The ruling came as the court reviewed ED’s 2015 action, where movable and immovable assets worth around ₹20 crore were attached, followed by a show-cause notice. The accused had challenged both measures before the High Court.
The case pertains to an alleged cricket betting and hawala network operated via the UK-based website Betfair.com and coordinated from a farmhouse near Vadodara by Girish ‘Tommy’ Patel and associates. ED searches in May 2015 recovered cash, digital records and forged-identity SIM cards, leading to a police FIR and subsequent PMLA proceedings. Investigators claim the network generated nearly ₹2,400 crore between December 2014 and March 2015, with ₹60 crore linked to the petitioner accused of distributing illegal “Super Master” betting IDs. The ED later issued multiple attachment orders to freeze assets believed to be derived from the proceeds of crime.
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