A special team of police personnel on Thursday arrested an agent who sold lottery tickets illegally in north Chennai and recovered a huge cache of lottery slips from his hideout. He was operating from here for more than 10 years, the police said.
Based on a tip-off received by Joint Commissioner of Police V. Balakrishnan, a special team of police personnel was constituted to nab the suspect.
The only clue about the suspect was his acronym JVM. After working out several leads, the police identified that it was Selvamani, 54.
The special team led by sub-inspector Vijay rounded up Selvamani in Kunnalamman Koil Street, Tondiarpet, and stumbled upon a huge quantity of lottery slips. Explaining the modus operandi , an investigation officer said Selvamani had been running a lottery agency under the name of JVM.
The suspect procured lottery strips from other States through three persons — Senthil, Rakesh and Aparna. He sold the numbers, which were written on plain paper, to customers whom he knew since he had been in business for long.
Money siphoned off
After the prize money was announced by the respective lottery operators outside the State, he would distribute the money to the winner here. He settled the money in part payment or disbursed it after siphoning off a major portion. All the ill-gotten money was invested in immovable properties and jewellery.
Selvamani has been booked under provisions of the Lotteries Regulation Act and the IPC and remanded in judicial custody.
Sale of lottery tickets, including online ones, is banned in the State since 2003.
