Enforcement Directorate (ED) recently filed a chargesheet in Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court against Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Anubrata Mondal and his daughter Sukanya in a fake lottery scam and a cattle smuggling case.
According to ED, Anubrata used to smuggle cattle, while his daughter Sukanya used to buy out the winning lotteries tickets in cash. The 204-page chargesheet was filed on Thursday, May 4 for the case of multi-crore cattle smuggling ‘scam’.
Mondal along with his daughter and one Chartered Accountant named Manish Kothari are all detained in Tihar prison for alleged involvement in the racket. Mondal was previously under CBI scanner Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for some suspicious lottery win.
Further investigation revealed that Mondal was using lottery wins as a way to launder the money earned through cattle smuggling. Upon questioning the lottery ticket seller, he also confirmed that the winning lottery as not purchased by Mondal.
After confirmation that Mondal did not purchase the lottery ticket, the police further investigated the accounts of Mondal and found that his family members have also won lottery tickets in the past. Money was being transferred from and to his daughter’s account which revealed the other two lottery wins.
Mondal was then arrested by the ED in November 2022, CA Kothari was then arrested earlier in March, which was followed with the arrest of Sukanya Mondal in April.
The chargesheet said that after examining several bank accounts for Mondal and his family members, the central agency allegedly found cash deposits over Rs 12.8 crore. All the deposits were done in either Rs 49,999 or Rs 49,000 to avoid raising suspicion according to The Print.
“The sources of these cash deposits have not been explained by either Anubrata Mondal or his daughter Ms Sukanya Mondal,” the chargesheet said, adding that Mondal claimed the money came from brokering land deals and trading business of paddy.
All the proceeds were laundered using lottery winning according to ED. The lottery agency insiders would inform about heavy prizes with winner information. The winners were then contacted and lured in exchange for more money than the lottery.
These lottery winners were paid some amount in advance but were never paid the promised amount. According to central agency claim, Mondal laundered approximately Rs 2 crore.
