West Bengal news: ED conducts searches over alleged lottery fraud and money laundering case; details here

The Enforcement Directorate on November 14 is conducting searches at multiple locations in West Bengal in connection with an alleged financial fraud of lottery and the corruption case involving money laundering through lottery tickets to certain influential people, as reported by news agecny ANI.

The ED conducted a raid at a lottery ticket printing facility located in Michael Nagar, near the airport. In addition, they carried out another operation at a high-end multi-story apartment on 26 Kavi Bharti Sarani, situated near Lake Market in South Kolkata.

In addition to this, ED on Thursday also conducted pan-India searches at multiple locations in Sikkim, and Tamil Nadu in connection with the case. financial fraud of lottery and the corruption case involving money laundering through lottery tickets to certain influential people. As per ANI report, the raids have been underway since today morning in at the premises of suspects in Sikkim, and Tamil Nadu's Chennai and Coimbatore.

All you need to know about lottery scam

The agency is probing a lottery scam case registered in 2012 against lottery baron Santiago Martin and others, in which the Sikkim government was allegedly cheated. The ED had earlier attached assets worth ₹277.59 crore in the case. They included a large number of immovable properties in Tamil Nadu.

On the basis of the charge sheets filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the ED had initiated a money laundering probe against Martin and his company, Future Gaming Solutions (P) Limited (presently Future Gaming and Hotel Services (P) Limited and formerly Martin Lottery Agencies Limited).

The agency had then alleged that Martin and others conspired to make wrongful gains.

They entered into an agreement with State government officials, in contravention of the Lottery Regulations Act, under which the company could avoid remitting the face value of lottery tickets sold in Kerala to the State exchequer as sale proceeds.

An illegal gain of over ₹910.30 crore was made by inflating the prize winning tickets' claims from April 1, 2009, to August 31, 2010, as alleged.

In 2022, ED seized assets totaling ₹409.92 crore linked to Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Limited and its network of distributors in West Bengal. The action follows cases filed by the Kolkata Police under the Indian Penal Code and the Lotteries (Regulation) Act. The seized assets consist of bank balances and mutual fund investments.

(With inputs from ANI)