Actors Urvashi Rautela and Sonu Sood were recently questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with an ongoing investigation into a betting app case.
The investigation was based on their affiliations and endorsement contracts with specific online gambling sites, according to NDTV Profit.
In addition to the two actors, the agency also called and questioned a number of other well-known individuals as part of the larger investigation, including cricket players Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, and Suresh Raina.
As quoted by News18, an ED official said, "These platforms have gained massive visibility by partnering with celebrities and influencers — even in defiance of explicit government bans." However, Urvashi and Sonu's team have not issued any officially statement yet.
According to reports, the celebrities in question were interrogated regarding their participation in promotional campaigns for surrogate platforms such as “1xbat.”
These platforms allegedly misled users by redirecting them through web links and QR codes to the primary 1xBet website, which is banned under Indian law. Authorities have asserted that these actions constitute a clear violation of prevailing legal norms.
An FIR was filed in Hyderabad earlier in March against 25 celebrities, including well-known figures like Nidhi Agarwal, Vijay Deverakonda, Rana Daggubati, Prakash Raj, Manchu Lakshmi, and Praneetha. They were charged with using endorsements and ads to promote unlawful betting apps.
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In response, Prakash Raj admitted that he had appeared in a 2015 ad for one of these platforms, but he made it clear that he had left the campaign after just a year. In a statement, Rana Daggubati's team also claimed that his endorsement complied with current laws and regulations.
The Enforcement Directorate has further alleged that although these platforms were publicly presented as skill-based gaming hosts, forensic investigations exposed rigged algorithms that effectively categorized them as gambling operations under Indian law. The ED noted that endorsements from high-profile figures like Yuvraj Singh and others significantly boosted the visibility of these platforms, thereby enabling large-scale financial fraud that victimized unsuspecting users.
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