Casino organiser Chikoti Praveen Kumar, who is under probe for money laundering through casinos in Nepal has allegedly maintained links with political leaders, Tollywood and Bollywood actors for organising his casino business reported Telugu news channels. He is said to have helped political leaders in transporting huge unaccounted cash through hawala during the elections.

The Enforcement Directorate with the help of CRPF has conducted raids in Hyderabad. A day after the ED officials served notices to Praveen asking him to appear before the agency officials for questioning on Monday, the agency started tracking his illegal activities with technical evidence.

According to reports, Chikoti Praveen used to organise the card games in Begumpet, Secunderabad, Jubilee Hills areas of Hyderabad. He later entered into a pact with casino Big Daddy and started plying customers between casinos in Goa and Nepal. He is alleged to have organised the travel tours  in association with political leaders.

It came to light on Friday that one Sampath, who is in the transport business, is a close associate of Praveen in his alleged illegal activities. Sources said the investigation agency, which obtained proper evidence in connection with Praveen’s illegal activities especially hawala transactions of unaccounted cash, is likely to serve notices on certain Tollywood actors, apart from political leaders from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Praveen also domesticated exotic species at his farmhouse located at Saireddigudem in Kadthal mandal of Rangareddy district on Friday. Praveen had taken permission to domesticate all exotic species through an app which was started by the Centre last year, to enable animal lovers to protect and domesticate them.

The accused are allegedly to have making profits of INR 40 lakh per week organising casino trips between Goa and Nepal from Telugu states.