Santiago Martin faces ED investigation amid lottery fraud allegations

Chennai: Lottery Baron Santiago Martinus and his relatives are facing an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and a criminal investigation, such as Madras High Court on Monday quashed a magistrate’s order accepting the closure report of a case by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the state police. The case involves the seizure of Rs 7.2 crore in uncounted cash from places linked to him.
A division bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice V Sivagnanam directed the ED to ensure that the matter is taken to its logical conclusion. The court passed the order while allowing an appeal filed by the ED seeking to set aside a judicial magistrate’s order to close the 2012 case registered in connection with the seizure of cash.
In March 2012, the CCB registered a case based on the seizure of Rs 7.2 crore missing money from the premises of one Nagarajan and Moorthy, associates of Martin. However, they claimed to have obtained the money through the sale of a property to Martin’s wife, Leema Rose. A preliminary investigation revealed that the sales agreement was entered into on March 2, 2012, but the stamp paper used in the agreement was released by the government on March 9 and sold by the stamp seller on March 13, eight days after the sales agreement. was made.
The CCB registered the case under various sections of the IPC for cheating, forging documents and hatching a scheme criminal conspiracy. Subsequently, the ED registered a case for money laundering under the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMLA) in 2016 based on the FIR filed by the CCB. In 2022, the judicial magistrate closed the case based on a closure report submitted by the CCB. Aggrieved, the ED has filed the present appeal.
The court allowed the appeal, saying it is a clear case of cheating by amassing money through the sale of illegally printed lottery tickets. It noted that the suspects adopted a schematic approach to escape from the clutches of PMLA proceedings. It noted that initiating PMLA proceedings requires a predicate offence. If during the pendency of a complaint under PMLA the predicate offense is closed, as in the present case, it results in a miscarriage of justice, the court said.
The court added that the CCB has made an attempt to bury the basic crime case against the suspects in a suspicious manner and on the basis of extraneous considerations, which are visible through their actions, including filing the closure report. The judges subsequently quashed the closure order issued by the judicial magistrate and directed the police and ED to continue with the investigation.