The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said it conducted searches in Punjab and Madhya Pradesh as part of a money-laundering investigation into a cricket and tennis betting racket.

The raids were undertaken on Thursday at five locations in Indore and Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh and Ludhiana in Punjab, the agency said in a statement.

It said Rs 31 lakh in cash, some incriminating documents and digital devices were seized apart from bank deposits, mutual funds and fixed deposits worth Rs 8 crore being frozen under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) during the searches.

The ED case stems from an FIR registered by Ujjain Police against one Piyush Chopra, who in “connivance” with his associates generated “proceeds of crime” by running a cricket betting operation “on a large scale” using SIM cards procured using “fake” documents.

Chopra, the ED alleged, established a set-up where he and his employees used to place bets on a website called LONDONEXCH9.COM.

The man used “hawala” transactions to fund the bets and receive the winnings. All betting transactions were tracked using a software called ‘Horse’ which was obtained by Piyush Chopra through two men — Abhay Chopra and Sanjay Agrawal — who were also allegedly involved in online betting activities, according to the ED.