SIX MEMBERS OF LOTTERY GANG ALONG WITH HUGE AMOUNT OF LOTTERY ARRESTED IN ROHTAS

SIX MEMBERS OF LOTTERY GANG ALONG WITH HUGE AMOUNT OF LOTTERY ARRESTED IN ROHTAS

22-JAN-ENG 1

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

SASARAM-----------------------------Patna STF and Rohtas police jointly conducted raids at Barah Patthar and Mohan Bigaha localities under Dihari police station and Khurmabad village under Chenari police station in Rohtas district and seized banned lottery tickets in large amount worth about crores of rupees and also arrested six members of lottery gang.  

Rohtas SP Roushan Kumar said that a team of STF from Patna, DIU and district police jointly conducted raids under the leadership of Revenue Officer, Dehari, Akram Ansari at the house of Rajesh Gupta, owner of Puja Mixing Lab at Barah Patthar locality under Dehari police station and seized a number of bags full of banned lotteries, a close Almirah and several electronic devices and arrested his aides Rishu Kumar, Khiru Kumar and Shivam Kumar. The police also raided the houses of Om Prakash Gupta and Prakash Paswan at Barah Patthar locality and seized several bags of lotteries and other devices and also arrested Sonu Kumar for interrogation. The police also conducted raid at the house of Gopal Prasad at Mohan Bigaha. The police raided a rice mill at Khurmabad under Chenari police station and seized several trucks lotteries from there.

After the raids, the Shahabad Zone DIG, Satya Prakash and Rohta SP Roshan Kumar jointly informed that lottery machines worth about Rs. 45 crorres were recovered and lottery preparation machines worth more than Rs. 4 crore were recovered. This business was being gone since long and about 150 labourers were engaged in this work. They said that at least five persons were arrested and added that lottery business was being run in hi-tech manner inside rice mill where even the working labourers and its engineers did not come out of the boundary wall because amidst that hi-tech system, the system of food, water, snacks, medicines and machine repair was also complete. Lottery worth crores of rupees has been recovered from a rice mill located at Khurmabad under Chenari police station. Lottery business was going on in full swing under the guise of the rice mill. This is being said to an inter-state lottery gang.

The DIG and the SP stated that the ring leader of the gang is Pawan Jhunkhunwala of Dehari in Rohtas district and he had been in jail several times several times. More than half a dozen such cases are pending against him. Lottery business was going on in the rice mill since 2023 and the members of the gang had taken training at Dhanbad. Earlier lottery business was being done on a large scale in Dhanbad, Jharkhand. They further said that lottery worth crores of rupees was recovered and the Economic Offenses Unit (EOU) and Enforcement Department (ED) have been informed about it and the ill-gotten money will be confiscated. They added that this is the first case in Rohtas district where lottery was recovered on such a large scale.

The DIG said that this is a big achievement for the police and the power given in the new law to illegally earn property will be used to seize and the police will investigate at every point. He added that lottery businessman Pawan Jhunjhunwala has connection in many other states besides Bihar and Jharkhand, Nagaland which will be investigated in depth. A SIT has ben formed under the leadership of DSP which is being monitored by the Rohtas SP Roshan Kumar.

Sources said that the STF team from Patna reached Rohtas on January 14, 2025, raided Dehari and took some people into custody and interrogated them. During interrogation, they revealed that the business of a lottery from a rice mill of Ibrahimpur under Chenari police station was going on since long and when the team of STF saw the business, they were stunned. The STF and the Rohtas police seized lottery tickets worth about Rs. 45 crore. The officers due said that the lottery tickets were supplied from Rohtas to various other States.