Online betting case: Telangana high court dismisses Fino Bank MD’s plea, denies bail

Hyderabad: High court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by Fino Payments Bank managing director and chief executive officer Rishi Nand Kishore Gupta challenging his arrest in an alleged online betting case as illegal and sought release on bail.Gupta, from Mumbai, moved the court seeking a writ of mandamus to declare his arrest by Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) authorities as arbitrary, illegal, high-handed, and violative of the Articles 14, 19, 21 and 222 of the Constitution.In his petition, Gupta also sought a declaration that the remand order passed by the special judge for trial of economic offences cases, Hyderabad, on March 1 as illegal. He further sought consequential relief for release on bail in the prosecution along with any other order the court deemed fit.The plea questioned both the legality of the arrest and the subsequent remand, with the petitioner asking the court to intervene against the action initiated by the authorities.The case arises from action taken by DGGI, Hyderabad unit, which arrested Gupta in Mumbai on Feb 18 in connection with an alleged online betting scam. He was arrested under Sections 132(1)(a) and 132(1)(i) of the CGST and SGST Act, 2017.The broader fraud under investigation relates to alleged online betting transactions. Gupta is suspected to have been involved in routing multi-crore transactions linked to betting app operations through banking channels.