The police of Madanapalle and Chittoor sub-divisions in joint operations on Monday night nabbed 11 operatives of a fake lottery tickets selling gang, including its prime organiser, at various locations in the district and seized Rs.4.2 lakh in cash, five motorcycles, 14 mobiles, lottery tickets and digital equipment.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Superintendent of Police Ghattamaneni Srinivas said that the gang was involved in sale of fake lotteries to gullible public in the western mandals during the last eight years. The official said that in April 2015, as many as 15 operatives were arrested and the illegal trade came down drastically in the later months.
“In the last three months, the organisers have become once again active and spread their operations in A.P., Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. After a two-month-long surveillance, special teams could manage to arrest 11 members, including the gang leader. Their modus operandi is to procure illegal agents and sell the fake lottery tickets to gullible people, both in rural and urban areas,” he said. The gang would print numbers of lottery tickers (of Assam and Kerala) on white paper slips and circulate them among vulnerable sections at a price ranging from Rs.40 to Rs.500 each with the amount of bumper lotteries set at Rs.10 lakh to Rs.50 lakh. Not a single case of any customer winning the lottery was registered during the last eight years.
Rags to riches
Dinesh (32), a native of Vellore (TN) but settled in Madanapalle for a decade, the prime organiser of the illegal lottery trade, had started his career as a worker at a footwear shop.
However, the illegal trade later fetched him more than Rs.1 crore, two houses and a network of agents spread over five states.
The agents arrested were identified as Desa Ashok Kumar, G. Rama Anil Kumar, C. Lazar, K. Vemanarayana, Syed Babu, Lavani Shoukath, Sheik Rahamtulla, P. Satyamohan, Patan Sardar Khan and Sheik Reddy Peera, all aged between 35 and 50 years and hailing from Madanapalle division.
Madanapalle Deputy Superintendent of Police P Rajendra Prasad and Mulakalacheruvu circle inspector Hrishi Kesava supervised the arrests.
The special party personnel later produced the eleven accused before the Tamballapalle court near Madanapalle, and were remanded in Madanapalle sub-jail.
