Kolkata, June 16 (IANS) The Purulia district police of West Bengal have busted a fake lottery racket and arrested two persons in connection with the operation, a senior district police officer said on Tuesday.

The arrested have been identified as Shakti Yadav and Ganesh Sau, residents of Amdanga and Ranipur villages, respectively, under the Neturia police station area of Purulia district.

According to police, Shakti worked as a lottery seller, while Ganesh was the main supplier in the fake lottery network. Both had reportedly been absconding for nearly a year before their arrest. A search at the residence of one of the accused led to the seizure of Rs 10.42 lakh in cash.

The duo was produced before the Raghunathpur sub-divisional court, which remanded them to five days in police custody.

Police said two other persons had been arrested on April 23, 2025, on charges of running a fake lottery business, during which a large number of lottery tickets and Rs 22,000 in cash were recovered. The main accused in that case had been on the run since then.

Recently, acting on specific inputs, investigators arrested Ganesh. His interrogation led to the identification of other members of the network, following which Shakti was apprehended.

Officials said illegal lottery operations have been active in the district for a long time. Earlier, the district police and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) conducted multiple raids and arrested several individuals.

Investigations have also revealed links with individuals based in neighbouring Jharkhand, and police have not ruled out a similar interstate connection in the current case.

According to police, the accused printed fake lottery tickets resembling authorised paper lotteries, making them difficult to distinguish. Sellers earned significantly higher commissions from fake tickets compared to legitimate ones, prompting the expansion of the racket into rural and semi-urban areas to evade detection.

Preliminary findings indicate that the fake tickets were circulated through a distribution network before reaching local sellers. Shakti Yadav was also involved as a distributor in the Neturia area, while unsuspecting buyers were duped in the process.

–IANS

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