New Delhi: A fake lottery racket jointly run
by Pakistanis and Indians, who are sending the ill-gotten
money to Pakistan through hawala, has been unearthed here.
No one has been arrested though the Delhi Police's Crime
Branch have joined the dots about the racket following a probe
into an input it received recently that some Pakistanis along
with Indians were cheating people by luring them into deposit
money on the pretext of realising money they won in lottery.
Last year, the Crime Branch had smashed several lottery
rackets with the arrest of 15 people, including nine
foreigners, most of them Nigerians. The fraudsters managed to
cheat people of around Rs 1.76 crore last year.
The unearthing of the racket comes close on the heels of
recovery of fake currency with a face value of Rs 2.24 crore
from south-west Delhi's Dabri on Thursday. Police believe that
the fake notes were printed and sent from Pakistan.
The fraud lottery racket involves a handler in Pakistan,
a Pakistani national illegally staying in Ludhiana, two
businessmen in Amritsar, a tea stall owner in Noida and a man
residing in Delhi's Wazirpur besides others.
There were inputs that people in Delhi and other parts
were receiving calls from Pakistan informing them that they
have won lottery worth millions of rupees and were asked to
deposit a certain amount in a particular bank account for
getting the whole amount.
"People used to deposit money in the bank account from
where it is siphoned off to Pakistan through hawala channels
and by way of recharge of DTH coupons," a senior police
official said today.
Investigators claim that two persons, one residing in
Wazirpur in Delhi and another in Noida in UP, were being
contacted from a phone in Pakistan.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, January 15, 2012, 10:44