ED Alleges EaseMyTrip Promoter Funneled Betting Proceeds Into Stock Market

India's Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet against EaseMyTrip promoter Nishant Pitti, accusing him of channeling approximately Rs 60 crore (around €6 million) of alleged illegal betting proceeds into the stock market. The ED claims Pitti facilitated the movement of funds through the sale of shares of his online travel company via the Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) route.

The chargesheet names Pitti as a "close associate" of Hari Shankar Tibrewal, co-accused and owner of the illegal betting platform SkyExchange. According to the ED, Pitti was directly involved in disguising betting proceeds as FPI investments. It is alleged that Pitti entered into a pre-arranged deal with Amardeep Sharma, an alleged accomplice of Tibrewal, to manipulate the share price and artificially inflate the market capitalization of Easy Trip Planners Ltd, EaseMyTrip's parent company.

The ED has provisionally attached shares worth approximately Rs 59.6 crore held in Pitti's demat account. These allegations follow raids conducted by the agency in April at premises linked to Pitti as part of its money laundering investigation. EaseMyTrip had previously denied any direct or indirect association with the Mahadev betting app.

Further allegations include that Pitti held a betting ID on the SkyExchange platform and that EaseMyTrip co-sponsored the Road Safety Cricket Series in 2022 alongside Tibrewal's platform. The ED estimates SkyExchange generated proceeds of crime totaling around Rs 12,000 crore. The Mahadev betting app is alleged to still be in operation, with estimated proceeds of crime ranging from Rs 75,000-80,000 crore since 2019.