"A Matter of Chance" continues...

When the matter reached the Crime Branch, the office of Guru Nanak Lotteries was searched and the winning ticket recovered. V.S. Sethi, a brother of S.K. Sethi, was arrested in this case.

Another lottery agency, M/s APS Agencies, was investigated on the basis of a complaint received at the police station on Deshbandhu Gupta Road, New Delhi. In this case, the company was not only cheating ticket buyers of their rightful prize money but was also forging its accounts, showing false transactions in its books and evading taxes amounting to crores of rupees.

The said agency was the sole organizer of Matka Sone Ka (MSK) and Matka Motiyon Ka (MMK)—two daily lotteries authorized by the Punjab government. The company was also authorized to supply paper for the printing of tickets while M/s Druck Grafen India Private Limited was contracted for printing the tickets.

The book of accounts revealed that M/s Druck Grafen procured the paper from APS Agencies and printed tickets at the rate of Rs 1500 per lakh. Nearly Rs 23 lakh was paid as expenditure on paper to APS Agencies and Rs 30 lakh was shown as printing charges. Further scrutiny of records revealed that one M/s Krishna Paper Mart supplied the paper to APS Agencies. However, investigations revealed that M/s Krishna Paper Mart was a non-existent firm and its registered office was the residence of a private citizen. The sales tax office also confirmed that no such firm had been allotted the sales tax number that the books of Druck Grafen reflected as belonging to their ‘paper supplier’.

Further, mandatory government papers meant for transportation of stationery from Delhi to Patiala did not carry any central sales tax or local sales tax numbers. It was clear that the bogus firm had not supplied any stationery, and all the bills in the books of Druck Grafen concerning M/s Krishna Paper Mart were fraudulent.


To be continued.....