The Enforcement Directorate has attached immovable properties of Lottery Kingpin Martin worth Rs 119 crore in and around Coimbatore District. This is In connection with the lottery scam that defrauded the Sikkim Government. The confiscation of the properties have been done under Prevention of Money Laundering Act .

A twitter put out by the ED states that the properties of Martin including 61 flats, 82 open plots and 6 properties with buildings on them in Coimbatore District has been attached. The CBI had filed an FIT and charge sheeted against the lottery kingpin and his company, Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd.

According to CBI, Santiago Martin had hatched “a criminal conspiracy to violate the provisions of the Lottery Regulation Act, 1998 to obtain wrongful gains by cheating the Sikkim government”.

It may be noted that Martin has operations in Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. However lottery is banned in Tamil Nadu. He is also accused of selling Sikkim lotteries in Kerala.

The ED has alleged that Martin and his associates made illegal gains to the extent of Rs 910.3 crore on account of inflating the prize winning tickets claim for the period between April, 2009 to August, 2010. He has invested the money laundered in the purchase of properties across Coimbatore and in the name of 40 companies.

Meanwhile, the family of a cashier who had been working with Martin for several years have alleged the lottery Kingpin’s family for the death of Palanisamy who had drowned in a river near Karamadai in Mettupalayam soon after the IT raids in Martin’s College of Homeopathy on Mettupalayam road. The family had sought Post mortem in front of a judicial magistrate.