Sikhar Dhawan Summoned By ED After Suresh Raina In Illegal Betting App Case

Former India cricketer Shikhar Dhawan has been summoned by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering investigation linked to an illegal betting app called 1xBet. Dhawan will be questioned about his links with the app and his statement will be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as part of the probe. Recently, former India all-rounder Suresh Raina was also questioned in the same case.

1xBet and other similar illegal betting applications are alleged to have duped numerous people and investors worth crores of rupees. They are also accused of having evaded a huge amount of taxes. Multiple cases are currently under investigation regarding financial frauds by such app and websites.

As per a report in the Hindustan Times, Dhawan was linked to the 1xBet app through endorsements.

Dhawan represented India 269 during his career and scored over 10000 international runs 17 ODI and seven Test centuries.

Suresh Raina also questioned

Raina was recently grilled for more than eight hours by the central agency in connection with the same application. Raina is also said to have been linked to this app through certain endorsements.

The representatives of Google and Meta were also called for questioning regarding such apps. An online betting app named Parimatch is also under the radar of investigators and a probe is going on into this application as well.

According to estimates by market analysis firms and probe agencies, there were about 22 crore Indian users of various such online betting apps, out of which half (about 11 crore) were regular users.

Ban on real-money gaming

The crackdown comes in the backdrop of the government banning real-money online gaming by bringing a legislation recently. The 'Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill 2025' came in last month which banned all real-money gaming, hitting fantasy as well as gambling sites.