Cops in search of youths who duped lottery vendor in Kerala
KOCHI: Vazhakulam police are in search of two youths who tampered with a lottery ticket and duped a vendor to claim the prize money of Rs 2,000. The incident took place at Edakkatukayattam, Manjalloor. The 65-year-old Shahul Hameed was duped by two youngsters who submitted a tampered lottery ticket to ‘claim’ the amount.
The Vazhakkulam police have registered a case for cheating and criminal breach of trust against the accused and launched a probe. It was around 8.50 am on October 15 that two youngsters approached Shahul’s lottery shop on the roadside in Edakkatukayattam. It is a general practice that lottery vendors will hand over the prize money of winning tickets if they are of smaller denominations.
Later the vendor will claim the money from the lotteries department by submitting the winning ticket. The youth took advantage of this provision and handed over a ticket to the vendor claiming that it had won a Rs 2,000 prize. Shahul who checked the list of prize-winning tickets found that the number KO 447225 had won the Rs 2,000 prize.
“To evade any suspicion, they bought 16 lotteries priced Rs 40 each and then took Rs 1,360 in cash from the vendor. The cheating came to light when Shahul handed over the ticket to lottery authorities to claim the amount,” Muhammad Basheer, Station House Officer, Vazhakulam, said.
On checking the lottery, it was found that the number of the original prize-winning ticket was KO447221. The last digit was tampered with so that it looked like KO447225 which won Rs 2000 prize. “Though the amount lost was only Rs 2000, we decided to register a case and identify the accused. The same persons might be cheating other lottery vendors as well. As the amount is low, most of them do not report the cheating to the police. We cross-checked with other police stations, but no such incidents were reported in those stations,” he said.
Police are trying to trace the accused after collecting the details of the motorcycle used by them. Similarly, CCTV cameras in the locality are also being checked. “It was found that the youths came on a black Pulsar motorcycle registered in Kollam. The registered owner had sold the bike to some other person but the ownership was not changed. From the investigation, it was revealed that two youngsters were involved in the case. Our team is after the accused persons,” he said.