Sonu Sood questioned by ED for nearly 7 hours in betting app-linked PMLA case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned actor Sonu Sood for about seven hours on Wednesday in a money-laundering case linked to an online betting app named 1xBet, officials said.

Sood (52) reached the agency’s office in central Delhi around 12 noon along with his legal team. He left around 7 pm.

The investigating officer of the case questioned Sood and recorded his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the officials said.

The federal probe agency has questioned former cricketers Suresh Raina, Shikhar Dhawan, Robin Uthappa and Yuvraj Singh, apart from former Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP and actor Mimi Chakraborty and Bengali actor Ankush Hazra over the last few weeks as part of the investigation.

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Some female social-media influencers have also been questioned by the agency as part of the probe.

The investigation into the operations of the 1xBet betting app is part of the ED’s wider probe against such platforms on allegations of duping numerous people of crores of rupees and reportedly evading a huge amount of direct and indirect taxes.

According to 1xBet, which is registered in Curacao, it is a globally-recognised bookmaker with 18 years of experience in the betting industry. Its customers can place bets on thousands of sporting events, with the company’s website and app available in 70 languages, according to the information available on its website.

Some more sportspersons, film actors, online influencers and celebrities are expected to be questioned by the ED in the coming days.

The agency may also soon initiate the process of attaching assets of individuals who are found using the alleged proceeds of crime generated from the promotional activities of the app. A chargesheet will be filed subsequently before a court, sources said.

The ED’s line of investigation, according to the sources, is to know from the celebrities as to how they were contacted by the said betting company seeking their endorsement, the nodal persons for contact in India, the mode of payment (cash through hawala or the banking channel), the place of the payments (in India or abroad), etc.

While recording the statements of the cricketers and actors, the ED is understood to be asking them if they know that online betting and gaming is illegal in India. It has also asked them to furnish a copy of their contracts and all relevant e-mail and paper documentation made by them with 1xBet.

The agency is also looking at the end use of the money taken by the celebrities to check if it can be categorised as “proceeds of crime” under the PMLA, according to the sources.

The Centre recently banned real-money online gaming in India by bringing a legislation.

The ED has also recently taken a policy decision to have “focussed strategies” in order to investigate financial crimes linked to illegal betting and gaming.

According to estimates by market-analysis firms and probe agencies undertaken before the government ban, there were about 22 crore Indian users in various such online betting apps and around half of them were regular users.

The online betting app market in India was estimated to be worth more than USD 100 billion, which was stated to be growing at the rate of 30 per cent annually, according to experts.

The government has told Parliament that it has issued 1,524 orders from 2022 till June 2025 to block online betting and gambling platforms.