Rana Skips ED's Probe, a Fresh Notice Serves Asking to Appear on Aug 11

 Hyderabad: Telugu film actor Rana Daggubati on Wednesday sought more time to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning in connection with the betting apps cases. Conceding to his request, the ED postponed the questioning to August 11.

Rana was supposed to appear before the ED on Wednesday. However, sources said the actor was at a scheduled film shooting in Tamil Nadu.

The ED officials had collected videos of several film personalities promoting betting apps to prepare the ground for questioning them. The agency also collected the data of organisers of such apps, middlemen including some private agency staff in consulting the actor and App management.

Sources further stated that there is no reschedule of dates in questioning the other film actors such as Prakash Raj, Vijay Deverakonda and Manchu Lakshmi. The ED did not receive any correspondence from the actors seeking time to appear before the ED.

The ED officials previously issued notices to Prakash Raj asking him to appear before the ED officials at the Basheerbagh office on July 30, Vijay Deverakonda on August 6, and Manchu Lakshmi on August 13. Rana Daggubati would appear on August 11.

A total 30 FIRs were registered by the Hyderabad police, Cyberabad police and CID in Telangana in connection with the betting apps and its illegal activities. The CID also blocked 100 betting apps which were running based in India by getting location IP addresses. Though the CID officials tried to identify some more apps, it was revealed that these apps are being operated from abroad and unable to trace out their details.