Telangana high court on Thursday directed the Hyderabad police to consider the petition of casino agent Chikoti Praveen Kumar seeking police protection to him and his family.

Praveen and his aides are under investigation by Enforcement Directorate (ED) for organising a trip to Nepal casinos in June. ED is investigating the allegations of money laundering using casinos in the Nepal-India border.

Amid heavy media scrutiny, Praveen on August 4 sought police protection as there is a threat to his and family members lives.

While disposing of the writ petition filed by Praveen, Justice Lalitha Kanneganti directed the police to consider the representation of the petitioner within one week from the date of receipt of a copy of the court’s order.

On July 27, the Enforcement Directorate registered a case against Praveen Kumar and others under the Foreign Exchange Management Act amid allegations of organising a casino for VIPs in Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

Subsequently, they have conducted raids at the residence, office, farmhouse and other places belonging to Praveen. The counsel for the petitioner stated that the media is continuously creating hype over the investigation and they also branded him as the prime accused in the case.

Meanwhile, the Congress party had demanded CM KCR to seek a CBI probe and come clean on the allegations of ruling TRS party links with Chikoti Praveen.

Releasing photos and video of casino mastermind Chikoti Praveen, AICC spokesperson Dasoji Sravan accused TRS leaders of aiding Chikoti Praveen. He demanded raids on homes of all TRS leaders whose names have cropped up during the investigation.

There were allegations that a TRS minister was close to Chikoti Praveen. Chikoti Praveen allegedly used the car of minister Malla Reddy with an assembly entry sticker.