Rana Daggubati, Vijay Deverakonda and Prakash Raj among 25 booked for promoting betting apps

Renowned Tollywood celebrities including, Rana Daggubati, Prakash Raj, Vijay Devarakonda and Manchu Lakshmi, have been booked for allegedly promoting illegal betting apps.

The FIR has been filed against the actors after a businessman named Phanindra Sharma filed a complaint.

Other names in the list include Praneetha, Nidhi Agarwal, Ananya Nagalla, Siri Hanumanthu, Sreemukhi, Varshini Sounderajan, Vasanthi Krishnan, Shoba Shetty, Amrutha Chowdary, Nayani Pavani, Neha Pathan, Pandu, Padhmavathi, Imran Khan, Vishnu Priya, Harsha Sai, Sunny Yadav, Shyamala, Tasty Teja, and Bandaru Sheshayani Supritha.

According to the FIR filed under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections related to cheating and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and state laws, the apps promote themselves through ads on the social media pages of the influencers and actors.

"Thousands of lakhs of rupees are involved in these illegal platforms and it is also leading many families into distress, especially that of middle-class and lower middle-class," it said.

The complainant has raised concern citing loss of hard-earned money by many people who actively use these apps.

Sharma said that he, like others, was going to indulge in betting but stopped after his family advised against it.

"These platforms are encouraging the public, especially people that are in 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 FIR added.
Sharma also claimed several celebrities and influencers are charging huge sums of money to promote these betting apps on their social media page.

While responding to the FIR, actor Prakash Raj said he had appeared in such an ad "way back in 2015.”

"We opted out after a year," the actor said, adding that he was trying to get detailed information about the case.

The case against the actors comes months after Telangana police arrested Allu Arjun following a woman’s death during the premiere of his film Pushpa 2: The Rule.