WinZO ED case: Saumya Rathore gets bail, Paavan Nanda denied in PMLA probe

A Bengaluru court granted bail to WinZO cofounder Saumya Singh Rathore, while denying relief to Paavan Nanda and extending his ED custody in the alleged ₹177 crore money laundering case

A Bengaluru court recently granted bail to WinZO cofounder Saumya Singh Rathore in a money laundering case, Bar and Bench reported on Tuesday. However, another cofounder, Paavan Nanda, was denied bail and sent to four days of Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody.

 

The duo leading the real money gaming platform WinZO were arrested by the ED last month under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

 

Principal City Civil and Sessions Judge M Chandrashekar Reddy, in an order dated December 26, noted that Rathore was entitled to the benefit of the proviso to Section 45 of the PMLA, which exempts women from the applicability of the stringent conditions governing bail in money laundering cases.

 

 

“Merely because she has to be confronted with statements of her employees or that some more evidence is to be collected, that will be no ground for seeking accused number 1 for further custody by ED,” the Court said.

 

However, in Nanda’s case, the court said the stringent bail conditions apply, requiring it to be satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe he is not guilty and is unlikely to commit any offence while on bail.

 

“I am unable to subscribe to his view that he has reasonably made out a case that he is not guilty of the alleged offences and that he is unlikely to tamper with evidence or influence witnesses,” the Court noted, extending his custody till December 30.

 

What is the case?

The probe agency alleged that the accused cheated real-time human players by deploying a deceptive algorithm, generating proceeds of crime of at least ₹177 crore between May 2024 and August 2025.

 

The agency further alleged that the accused diverted the proceeds of crime to their overseas subsidiaries, thereby committing the offence of money laundering. It said the funds transferred to these foreign entities amounted to $55 million (₹489.9 crore).

 

"The funds worth $55 million (₹489.9 crore) have been parked in their (promoters') bank account in the United States (bank accounts held in the name of 'WINZO US Inc'), which is a shell company, since all the operations and day-to-day business activities, operation of bank accounts is done from India," the ED had said.

 

The agency’s case against WinZO and its promoters was filed on November 6, based on a Gurugram police cybercrime FIR in which a gamer alleged losing nearly ₹42 lakh while playing real money games such as ludo and snakes.