KOCHI: The state government on Wednesday submitted before the Kerala High Court that controversial lottery dealer Santiago Martin, who has a proven history of indulging in lottery fraud, should not be permitted to engage in the sale of lotteries of Nagaland government in the state.
The state filed the counter-affidavit in response to a petition filed by Future Gaming and Hotels Services Pvt Ltd in which Santiago Martin is the managing director, challenging the decision of the Taxes Department rejecting the application for registration of the company for the sale of Nagaland lottery. P C Joseph, Deputy Commissioner (Law), Department of Commercial Taxes, submitted that Martin who is the director of the petitioner company was involved in violations with regard to the sale of Bhutan and Sikkim lotteries in Kerala. The CBI had initiated criminal cases against the director. Meanwhile, the Centre had banned the sale of Bhuttan and Sikkim lotteries by the company in Kerala for two years in 2013. The state had requested the Centre to extend the period of ban imposed on the operation of Sikkim lottery until the CBI inquiry is over.The state government had not banned the operation of any other state lotteries, including the state of Nagaland. The state is not a lottery free zone, hence it cannot prohibit other state lotteries unless it decides to prohibit its own lotteries. However the state has a legitimate right to monitor the operation of other state lotteries so as to ensure that the distributor abides by all the provisions of the Central Act and the Rules. The state has no ill motive to prohibit other state lotteries for expanding its own lotteries, the affidavit stated. There is no reason to believe that the company would not indulge in similar offences in future. The present application for sale of Nagaland state lotteries is yet another attempt from the company to amass illegal wealth by cheating the public through the sale of lotteries. There are 32 cases registered by the CBI against the company and others. Out of this, 23 cases were referred and the CBI filed closure report. But nine cases are still pending against the company. The state had filed objections against the closure report of the CBI. Besides, the Palakkad south town police had registered a case against the company for illegally printing lottery tickets worth Rs 60.65 crore and selling them in the state from April 2010 to August 2010.
“Engagement of the company as the distributor of Nagaland government for the sale of lotteries in Kerala is not agreeable to the state government. Online lotteries are banned in Kerala. But in the agreement between the distributor and Nagaland government, it was stated that the distributor is entitled to conduct online lotteries of Nagaland and it is clubbed with their paper lotteries. If they conduct lotteries based on illegal and ambiguous agreement, it gives room for the distributor to commit any fraud as was evident from the case of Sikkim and Bhuttan,” the state submitted.
The state, by invoking the provisions of Rule 5 of the Lotteries Regulation Rules 2010, has taken up the issue of violations with the Nagaland government and sent a letter in this regard on November 15, 2013.
