YouTuber Claims Top Cop, IAS Officers' Link In Betting App Scam, Faces Case

The Telangana Cyber Crime Police has registered a case against YouTuber Anvesh after he alleged in a recent video that the state Director General of Police (DGP) and five IAS officers were involved in a Rs 300 crore betting app scam.

On his YouTube channel "Naa Anveshana", Visakhapatnam-based Anvesh had posted a video in which he claimed DGP Jitender and the IAS officers accepted the amount to allow betting apps. He also accused the officials of misappropriating funds through the app, adding that the officials allowed promotion of the betting apps through advertisements on the Hyderabad Metro Rail.

The other officials he named included Hyderabad Metro Rail Managing Director NVS Reddy, IAS officers Santhi Kumar, Dana Kishor and Vikas Raj.

A First Information Report (FIR) against Anvesh was registered on a complaint by A Naveen Kumar, a constable working in the social media cell of Cyberabad Police Commissionerate. The police have called allegations baseless and have initiated legal action against him for disseminating unverified information.

Anvesh, who has 2.4 million subscribers on YouTube and 2 million followers on Instagram, had claimed that transactions worth Rs 1,000 crore occurred through betting apps, naming several Tollywood actors and social media influencers who were promoting and profiting from the business.

Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) had last week removed advertisements related to betting apps from all metro premises after a Telangana High Court notice in response to a plea.

The case comes months after cases were registered against actors Rana Daggubati, Vijay Devarakonda, Prakash Raj, Manchu Lakshmi, Nidhi Agarwal and 19 social media influencers for allegedly promoting betting apps.