Karnataka High Court Declares Arrest of Gameskraft Directors Illegal

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday declared the arrest of three directors of online gaming company Gameskraft Technologies Ltd in a money laundering case as illegal. Justice M Nagaprasanna ruled that the arrest violated constitutional safeguards and ordered the immediate release of the petitioners—Deepak Singh, Prithvi Raj Singh, and Vikas Taneja.

In his 134-page order, Justice Nagaprasanna observed: 'The power to arrest may be statutory, the right to liberty is constitutional. Whenever the two intersect, the law demands that the former bow to the safeguards, fairness, and accountability that the latter commands.' The court emphasized that necessity to arrest must arise from new circumstances, new material, or new conduct, and cannot spring from unchanged allegations.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested the three directors on May 8 based on an ECIR registered in February 2025, following multiple FIRs in Telangana. The ED alleged cheating, fraud, and money laundering. However, the court noted that the material used to justify the arrest was substantially the same as that considered in an earlier ECIR registered in 2024, which did not lead to arrest. The earlier ECIR was based on a complaint that was later closed by police as lacking substance.

Senior advocate Dr S Muralidhar, representing the petitioners, argued that the arrest was made without new evidence. The court agreed, stating: 'The foundation may have been repackaged; it has not been reconstructed.' It added that the ED could issue summons under Section 50 of the PMLA to the petitioners and proceed according to law if circumstances warrant.