NEW DELHI: A probe into illegal betting-linked money laundering has led the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to a bike-taxi driver in Delhi, whose bank account saw unexplained deposits of Rs 331.36 crore over eight months.Officials said the agency stumbled upon the Rapido driver while tracking transactions connected to the 1xBet betting network. The deposits — made between August 19, 2024, and April 16, 2025 — triggered suspicion and prompted ED to raid the address tied to the account, according to news agency PTI.What they found was far from the profile of someone moving multi-crore sums. The driver lived in a two-room shanty in a modest locality and spent most of his day on the roads, earning just enough to run his household. During questioning, he claimed he had no knowledge of the deposits or the beneficiaries.
The agency suspects the account was used as a “mule” — a bank account operated by money-laundering networks using fake or rented KYC details to channel illegal funds.Also Read | Dead owners, ghost signatures, forged GPAs: ED stumbles upon ‘land fraud’ in Delhi blast probe linked to Al-Falah University founderWhat caught investigators’ attention further was that over Rs 1 crore from the same account was used to settle bills for a luxury destination wedding in Udaipur. The event is linked to a young Gujarat politician, who may soon be summoned for questioning, officials said.ED has found that the driver’s account received money from multiple unidentified sources and the funds were swiftly transferred to other suspicious accounts. One of the fund sources has been traced to illegal betting.The agency is now verifying the entire chain of sources and recipients.ED has recently attached assets worth crores belonging to former cricketers Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina in the 1xBet case and has questioned several celebrities as part of its ongoing crackdown.
