The Enforcement Directorate on Friday seized ₹ 8.8 crore in cash from the corporate office of Chennai-based ‘lottery king’ Santiago Martin, officials said.
Chennai: The Enforcement Directorate seized ₹ 8.8 crore in cash from the corporate office of Santiago Martin, the Chennai-based lottery king, officials said. Martin was the biggest donor to political parties, with over ₹ 1,300 crore in now-scrapped electoral bonds.
The officials said the searches were carried out across several states as part of a money laundering case against the ‘lottery king.’
The action is in view of the Madras High Court recently allowing the ED to proceed against Martin. The Tamil Nadu Police had decided to close the predicate or primary FIR against him, and a few others and a lower court accepted this police plea.
The officials said at least 20 premises linked to Martin, his son-in-law Aadhav Arjun, and associates in Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Faridabad in Haryana, Ludhiana in Punjab, and Kolkata in West Bengal were being searched as part of a “comprehensive” action against his business empire.
