ED seizes ₹3 crore from Kolkata businessman in alleged lottery fraud

Searches continue in West Bengal; documents seized from lottery printing facility in North 24 Parganas

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) seized ₹3 crore in cash from a businessman’s house in south Kolkata on Friday (November 15, 2024) following a 33-hour search in connection with an alleged multi-crore lottery fraud.

The same day, the ED also conducted search operations in a building at Madhyamgram’s Michael Nagar in North 24 Parganas, which was reportedly used as an office, warehouse, and a lottery ticket printing facility. Although the ED officials said they had recovered crucial documents from this location, the amount of money seized from the building remains unconfirmed.

Officials of the investigating agency brought currency-counting machines to tally cash at both Michael Nagar as well as the businessman’s residence in south Kolkata’s posh Lake Market locality.

The lottery printing factory at Michael Nagar was searched on Thursday also.

The ED has been conducting search operations at multiple locations across West Bengal since Thursday, in connection with a case of alleged money laundering and financial fraud through lottery tickets. Residences and offices of lottery ticket agents in south Kolkata were searched on Thursday.

The ED action is part of its pan-India search operations against ‘lottery king’ Santiago Martin. He is being probed by the ED since 2019. 

The agency conducted searches in 20 locations across States such as Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Punjab and Haryana on Thursday.

Notably, Mr. Martin is the founder of Future Gaming and Hotel Services, the biggest donor of electoral bonds in the country (worth around ₹1,368 crore) between April 12, 2019, and January 24, 2024. 

According to the data on electoral bonds provided to the Election Commission by the State Bank of India earlier this year, the company was the top donor for three political parties — the Trinamool Congress, the DMK, and the YSRCP.

Adhikari’s allegation

“I have been talking about Dear Lottery and Martin Lottery continuously for the last two years. They have given around ₹600 crores to Trinamool through electoral bonds. They paid ₹4,500 crores tax to the State,” BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari said on Friday. 

In 2022, Mr. Adhikari alleged that the Trinamool Congress leaders had a “tangled relationship” with lottery establishments. “It’s an easy way to launder money. Common people buy tickets but Trinamool leaders win bumper prize,” he wrote on social media platform X on October 27, 2022.

On Friday, he also claimed that many relatives of Trinamool leaders had won the lottery.

Md Salim, West Bengal State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said that soon the links between the lottery money and parties such as the Trinamool and the BJP would be exposed.  

Published - November 15, 2024 10:31 pm IST