Online betting: Telangana HC dismisses Fino Bank MD Rishi Gupta’s plea, denies bail

The Telangana High Court on Monday dismissed a writ petition filed by Fino Payments Bank managing director and chief executive officer Rishi Nand Kishore Gupta challenging his arrest in a case allegedly involving online betting.

Gupta sought to be released on bail. He also moved to have the March 1 remand order passed by the special judge for trial of economic offences cases, Hyderabad, declared illegal. Gupta's counsel said his arrest by Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) authorities was violative of Articles 14, 19, 21 and 222 of the Constitution.

The case


GST authorities arrested Gupta for allegedly violating the law related to Goods and Services Tax (GST) in February. As per reports, the initial investigation brought to light GST evasion of several crores involving many shell and non-existent entities, payment aggregators etc., that had been used to funnel the illicit funds being generated by online money gaming.

The arrest had elicited a strong reaction from the fintech sector. “Details of the case remain unclear. Many fintech founders have raised concerns about the manner of the arrest, largely in their personal capacities,” a fintech founder had told us at the time.

Industry body Payments Council of India (PCI), which represents digital payments companies, had written to finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman seeking urgent intervention.