Uttar Pradesh: Police raid popular YouTuber, recover huge cash and luxury cars

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate raided a house in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao on Thursday and recovered a huge amount of cash and several high-end luxury vehicles from there. The house belongs to popular YouTuber Anurag Dwivedi. According to a report in NDTV, the young man is involved in illegal gambling activities and made huge amounts of money in the recent past, through his channel.

The ED probe centres around the money trail and also Dwiedi's illegal earnings from bettings. Sources quoted officers as saying that a huge amount of money which the YouTuber made, came from Sky Exchange and other gambling apps. This app allows users to indulge in online betting, which is an illegal act in India.

According to investigators, the earnings made through online gambling were laundered through various means and then used to buy high-end luxury vehicles. The YouTuber also bought other expensive items through this black money, said officials.

Dwivedi has been booked by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). HIs house was raided and several illegally acquired items, including high-end cars were recovered from his house. Some of the cars recovered were, Lamborghini Urus, BMW Z4 and Mercedes-Benz.

According to the ED officials Dwivedi ran a YouTube channel, which he allegedly used to promote betting and gambling apps. This led several people to download these apps, thus expanding the gambling racket across the country.

Now the ED is trying to determine the extent of the racket and searching if other people are also involved in illegal activities and money laundering. They are trying to determine where the huge amount of money Dwivedi made was invested. The agency might take action against and arrest more people in the coming days.

Apart from the raids in UP, a search was also carried out in Siliguri by the West Bengal Police. The police have arrested 2 more people identified as Sonu Kumar Thakur and Vishal Bhardwaj, who were also involved in money laundering. They had several mule bank accounts, Telegram channels and other digital platforms for online betting.

According to investigators, Dwivedi was actively involved in promoting betting. He used to create YouTube videos to lure people into investing money in betting and in return received payments through hawala operators, mule accounts, and cash deliveries collected through intermediaries. The money was reportedly transferred into bank accounts of his company and also into the accounts of his family members.