‘Being a woman…’: Bengaluru Court grants bail to WinZo co-founder Saumya Rathore, refuses bail to Paavan Nanda

A Bengaluru sessions court has granted bail to Saumya Singh Rathore, co-founder and director of Winzo Games Pvt Ltd, in a money-laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), according to a report by Bar and Bench.

However, the court denied bail to the company’s other co-founder, Paavan Nanda, and allowed the agency to take him into custody for four days, according to the report.

The joint order was issued by Principal City Civil and Sessions Judge M Chandrashekar Reddy in connection with a complaint alleging offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

Who is Paavan Nanda?

Paavan Nanda, 38, is an Indian entrepreneur and one of the co-founders of WinZO, a prominent real-money and social gaming platform. Before launching WinZO in 2018, he was involved in building Zostel, a well-known backpacker hostel chain, as well as its budget-hotel aggregation venture, ZO Rooms.

Nanda earned an engineering degree from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT), New Delhi and later completed an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) in 2014.

Who is Saumya Singh Rathore?

Saumya Singh Rathore is a co-founder of WinZO, an online gaming platform that was launched in 2018.

According to her LinkedIn profile, she completed a master's degree in Organisational and Consumer Psychology (Industrial and Consumer Psychology) at the University of Manchester between 2008 and 2009. During this time, she was certified in occupational testing by SHL and was a member of the British Psychological Society.

Earlier, she studied Applied Psychology at Bangalore University, specialising in Applied Clinical Psychology, beginning in September 2005.

Why court granted bail to Saumya Singh Rathore?

The sessions court granted Rathore bail, ruling that she qualified for relief under the proviso to Section 45 of the PMLA, which exempts women accused from the law’s strict bail requirements. “Accused No.1 being a ‘woman’, her case falls under the proviso to Section 45(1)(ii) of PML Act, and the twin conditions are not applicable in her case,” the Court said, according to Bar and Bench.

The judge observed that Rathore had already been subjected to extensive custodial questioning and that further detention was unnecessary. “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 No.1 for further custody by ED,” the Court said, as reported by Bar and Bench.

Money laundering case

The money laundering case filed by the ED against WinZO and its promoters was registered on 6 November, taking cognisance of a Gurugram police cyber crime FIR in which a gamer had complained that he had lost nearly ₹42 lakh through their real-money games, including Ludo and Snake.

“The funds worth USD 55 million ( ₹489.90 crore) have been parked in their (promoters) bank account in USA (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 agency said in a press statement.

WinZO Games Pvt Ltd is in the business of online real money gaming services through its app - WinZO.

Probe found, it alleged, that the company and its directors indulged in cheating real-time human players by using the deceptive “PPP” algorithm, and they have generated proceeds of crime, at least amounting to ₹177 crore, for the period from May 2024 to August 2025.

It added that the directors “diverted” the proceeds of crime to their foreign subsidiaries and thus were guilty of the offence of money laundering. The agency said that the funds diverted to foreign entities were quantified at USD 55 million (approximately ₹489.90 crore).

The ED officials further stated that WinZO Pvt Ltd was engaged in alleged criminal activities and unscrupulous practices, with customers playing with algorithms or software without being made aware of the fact that they are not playing against any humans on the other side.

“WinZO has also prevented and limited withdrawals of monies held by the customers in the wallets of WinZO Pvt Ltd,” said the agency.

The ED stated that its investigation revealed WinZO was operating real-money games from India in overseas markets, including Brazil, the United States, and Germany, utilising the same platform as its Indian operations. The agency further alleged that, despite the Union government’s ban on real-money games, effective 22 August 2025, the company continues to hold ₹43 crore without refunding the money to gamers and customers.

(With inputs from agencies, Bar and Bench)