The CBI team probing the lottery scam involving Santiago Martin confirmed that no lottery sold by him was forged and no malpractice was done in the serial numbers of the lottery tickets sold by Martin and his aide John Kennedy. However, the graft of no more than Rs 20 crore had taken place, the CBI officials said.
“The CBI has been investigating 32 cases of which 21 were dismissed. We did not record charges for forgery in any case. Criminal conspiracy, violation of Lottery Act and cheating had taken place. The conspiracy was hatched at the top level breaching the agreement made between Bhutan and Sikkim governments and Santiago Martin,” a senior CBI official said.
K Krishna Kumar, SP, CBI, said that the major graft took place when Martin sold the lottery tickets through John Kennedy.
“There was nothing illegal in the printing of lottery tickets. All norms were followed in the printing.
Misappropriation took place as Martin who had agreements with other governments sold the tickets through Kennedy and agents under him. We have also found evidence about manipulation made in selecting the winners of the lottery. We expect that the investigation would be over in a month,” Krishna Kumar said.