ED Freezes Rs. 5.5 Crore Account Balance in Mobile Gaming Application Fraud

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Monday said it has carried out a search operation and freezed account balance of Rs. 5.59 crore of Aamir Khan and its accomplices in a fraud involving mobile gaming application E-nuggets.

The ED has taken the action under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The instant case was registered on the basis of FIR dated February 15, 2021, filed under various sections of IPC by Park Street Police Station, Kolkata Police, against Aamir Khan and others, based on complaint filed by Federal Bank authorities, in the court of Learned Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Calcutta, the ED said in a statement.

Aamir Khan, son of Nesar Ahmed Khan, launched a mobile gaming application namely E-Nuggets, which was designed for the purpose of defrauding public. Further, after collecting sizeable amount from the public, all of the sudden, the withdrawal from the said app was stopped, on one pretext or the other. Thereafter, all data including profile information was wiped off from the said app servers, the ED said.

It was revealed during the investigation that multiple accounts (more than 300) were used to launder the money. On the basis of information available, the amount of Rs. 5.59 crore lying in balance in the said related bank accounts has been freezed, the enforcement agency said.

Earlier during the search operation conducted against said Aamir Khan, Rs. 17.32 crore cash was found and seized from the residential premises; 85.91870554 Bitcoins equivalent to $1674255.7 (nearly Rs. 14 crore) found in balance in Binance Exchange was freezed; cryptocurrencies [WRX (utility token of WazirX) and USDT (Tether)] equivalent to Rs. 47.64 lakhs was freezed in “WazirX Accounts”.

During investigations conducted under PMLA so far, an amount of Rs. 36.96 crore has been seized/ freezed in total in this case. Further investigation is under progress, the ED said.