'DEAR' lottery company and its winners were already on the radar of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
New Delhi
Corruption is often a by-word in contemporary settings. It has been the case lately with states like West Bengal.
Years back about corruption in Nagaland, it was stated albeit in a tongue-in-cheek fashion that payments are received in Nagaland for works done in heaven (reference to Punya or good works of previous life).
Now there is an alleged scam linked to the Lottery and BJP leader in West Bengal Suvendu Adhikari says there are money laundering links.
A Rs 1-crore lottery prize has been won by a Trinamool Congress MLA’s wife Ruchika Gupta (wife of VIvek Gupta). It had sparked a new political row in West Bengal, with the Opposition BJP levelling accusations of money laundering against TMC. Interestingly, Ms Ruchika is the second person linked to the Trinamool to win the top prize in the lottery.
Predictably, the TMC has denied the allegations.
Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari says, “The poor people of West Bengal are being lured by the prospect of winning easy money and are becoming addicted while the lucky winners seem to be the lottery company and TMC leaders".
Needless to add perhaps, Ms Ruchika has thanked the Nagaland government and Dear Government Lotteries and maintained that she would use the money to improve her family’s financial status.
Notably, in December 2021, the TMC’s Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal won Rs 1 crore cash
in the same lottery. Mondal is at present behind bars in a cattle smuggling case.
The “DEAR Government Lotteries” is run in Sikkim, Nagaland, and West Bengal. The news of Ruchika’s win
came to light after West Bengal’s Leader of the Opposition Adhikari tweeted last week about it.
“I have been saying this all along that Dear (Bhaipo) Lottery and TMC have a tangled relationship. It’s an easy way to launder money. Common people buy tickets but TMC leaders win bumper prizes. First Anubrata Mondal won the jackpot and now TMC MLA Vivek Gupta’s wife has won one crore," he said also draggingWest Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's powerful nephew Abhishek.
The word 'Bhaipo' in Bangla means nephew or brother's son.
Trinamool leader and Mamata Banerjee's trusted aide Firhad Hakim said, “Everything cannot be politicised. It is the Income Tax Department’s job to investigate if someone has made a false declaration".
Sources said the 'DEAR' lottery company and its winners were already on the radar of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
However, no case has been registered yet.
It goes without stating that the premier agency has probed 'money laundering' allegations against several Trinamool including in the education department and also alleged coal pilferage case and cattle smuggling.
Mamata Banerjee's colleague of many years and former Minister Partha Chatterjee and his associate Arpita Mukherjee were arrested.
North Bengal University vice chancellor Subires Bhattacharyya too was held in connection with the assistant teachers' recruitment scam in West Bengal in 2016. Bhattacharyya is former chairperson of the West Bengal Central School Service Commission, which has hit headlines for wrong reasons in the recent past.
The CBI had earlier arrested former minister Partha Chatterjee's his relative Prasanna Roy, education department officials S P Sinha and Ashok Saha, and former West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) president Kalyanmoy Ganguly.
ends
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