Fake lottery scam: Gang duped shop owners of Rs 13 lakh

A police officer said that the four accused had claimed the prize money by showing fake tickets between February 15 and March 1. Representation pic

Four members of the gang arrested on Wednesday for collecting prize money on fake lottery tickets, have fraudulently claimed R13,10,000 from different lottery centres in Mumbai, the police said.

According to the police, the accused had come to Mumbai on February 15. They printed the fake lottery tickets with 20-25 numbers, which were in the series of winning numbers. As soon as the results of the lottery were declared, they would collect the prize amount by showing a fake ticket.

One of the arrested accused would visit the lottery centre in the morning and click a photo of the winning number. He would then send the photo to his partner in Kolkata over WhatsApp, after which a fake ticket was created. The accomplice would then come to Mumbai the next day by flight with printouts of fake tickets.

Ninad Sawant, senior police inspector of Borivli police station said, "The probe revealed that the four accused had duped several lottery shop owners in Goregaon, Mumbadevi, Dadar East and Sion of over Rs 13 lakh."

A police officer told mid-day that between February 15 and March 1, the four accused had claimed the prize money by showing fake tickets from 11 areas. "If 37A1587 is the winning number, then they printed tickets with numbers starting from 37A1581 to 37A1600 to avoid suspicion," the police officer added.

All the four accused - Kishore Anand Mohan Mandal, 35, Saidul Islam Mola, 28, Soleman Ansari, 22, and Arun Deori, 28 - are residents of West Bengal.