Ex-Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan was called for questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday in a money laundering probe related to an illegal betting app.
The central investigation agency will take Dhawan's statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) during its ongoing investigation into the betting site 1xBet.
Dhawan, 39 years old, is said to be associated with the app through some endorsements, and the ED wants to determine the degree of his association with the platform during interrogation.
The agency is probing several cases dealing with illegal betting apps which are accused of cheating a number of investors and users of crores of rupees, as well as of avoiding huge tax liabilities.
Last month, a former cricketer Suresh Raina was also interrogated in this investigation. The 38-year-old, who played 18 Tests, 226 ODIs, and 78 T20Is for India, was questioned for more than eight hours, and his statement was taken under the PMLA about his association with the same sports betting app, 1xBet.
The ED has also called in representatives of leading technology firms such as Google and Meta in connection with its investigations. On Tuesday, it conducted multi-state raids connected with another online gambling app, Parimatch, as the agency widens its investigation into such websites.
Government statistics and industry estimates suggest that as many as 22 crore people use a number of online gambling applications in India, out of whom about 11 crore are regular users. Experts have pointed out that India's market for online gambling is worth more than USD 100 billion and growing at an annual growth rate of about 30 percent.
The Central government recently acted to ban real-money online gaming by enacting new bills to monitor and limit such websites.
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