Hyderabad: Police book 25 including 6 Tollywood actors for allegedly promoting betting apps

Hyderabad: Miyapur police have registered a case against 25 people, including actors Rana Daggubati, Prakash Raj, Vijay Devarakonda, Manchu Lakshmi, and Nidhi Agarwal, for allegedly promoting betting apps.

This come after Hyderabad Police intensified their efforts to crack a whip on the social media influencers for allegedly promoting online betting apps.

According to the FIR, Rana, Manchu Lakshmi, Nidhi Agarwal, Vijay Devarakonda, and Pranitha, another 18 social media influencers have been promoting betting apps.

According to the complainant 32-year-old PM Phanidra Sarma, on March 16, while the petitioner was interacting with his colony community youth, most of them have started discussing about investing money into the betting, gambling and casino apps which are beingpromoted by celebrities and influencers on social media. It has come to his knowledge that people are actively engaging in such apps and most of them havealready lost their hard earned money into it. Even he have been influenced by such betting applications, and was about to deposit in one suchbetting/gambling/casino website, but due to his family’s word of caution, he did not do so.

"While he using his social media applications, especially that of Instagram and Facebook, I have come across several celebrities and influencers who are actively promoting several of the illegal betting apps, websites andother platforms that have to be downloaded on mobile phones and used for betting and gambling. The influencers and celebrities who are promoting these apps and websites are doing so by accepting huge sums of money as commission, and remuneration. These platforms are encouraging public, especially people that arein dire need of money, to invest their hard earned and family money into those apps/websites and slowly get addicted to them, leading to total financial collapse," the complainant said.

1) Rana Daggubati, Jungleerummy.com, Through pop-up ads.

2) Prakash Raj,Jungleerummy.com, Through pop-up ads.

3) Vijay Devarakonda, A23, Through pop-up ads.

4) Manchu Lakshmi, www.yolo247.com, Through pop-up ads.

5)Praneetha, www.fairplay.live, Through pop-up ads.

6) Nidhi Agarwal, JeetWin, Through pop-up ads.

A week ago, the Panjagutta Police also filed cases against 11 actors and social media influencers, including Imran Khan, Harsha Sai, Tasty Teja, Kiran Goud, Vishnu Priya, Shyamala, Rithu Chowdhary, Bandaru Sheshayani Supritha, Ajay, Sunny and Sudheer, on charges of allegedly promoting betting apps.

According to the complainant, these betting app platforms are in direct violation of the gambling laws and regulations, especially, the Public Gambling Act of 1867, causing harm to individuals and society by encouraging this addictive short-term risky money-making behavior, leading to financial distress.

The apps appear to be targeting young adults and the general public, making gambling easily accessible.

These platforms are actively promoting their services through social media channels and unregulated advertising, which further exacerbates the problem. The complainant suspects thousands of crores of money involved in these online betting apps. He appealed to the authorities to take swift action to investigate and shut down these illegal betting operations.

A case has been registered in Cr No.393/2025 U/s 318(4), 112 r/w 49 BNS And sec 3,3(A), 4 of TS Gaming Act and Sec 66 (D) of IT Act and investigation is on.