Vijay Deverakonda, Prakash Raj, Rana Daggubati Among Others Booked In Betting App Case

The Enforcement Directorate has booked 29 celebrities including Vijay Deverakonda, Prakash Raj and Rana Daggubati for endorsing betting apps, NDTV reported. The action was based on five FIRs filed in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The central investigative agency has invoked the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the probe.

The 29 celebrities include film actors, influencers, and YouTubers, who have been accused of violating the Public Gambling Act, 1867, by promoting such gambling apps.

The FIR was filed after a businessman, Phanindra Sarma, filed a complaint on March 20, 2025, as per report.

The accused list also features several other prominent names from Tollywood—the Telugu film industry—including Prakash Raj, Manchu Lakshmi, Nidhi Agarwal, Pranitha Subhash, and Ananya Nagella.

The list further features influencers like Sreemukhi, Shyamala, Varshini Sounderajan, Harsha Sai, Vasanthi Krishnan, Amrutha Chowdary, Nayani Pavani, Shoba Shetty, Neha Pathan, Pandu, Padhmavathi, and Bayya Sunny Yadav.

The FIR says these platforms promote their apps and websites through social media advertisements with the help of celebrities and influencers, as per the NDTV report. "Thousands of lakhs of rupees are involved in these illegal platforms and it is also leading many families into distress, especially that of middle-class and lower middle-class," it added.

The complainant has said that people are actively using these apps and many have lost their hard-earned money.