Alleged lottery fraud with links from Pakistan unearthed

From Deccan Herald

Kanpur, Jan 12 (PTI)

A former BSF head constable was today detained by police here for allegedly being part of fake lottery racket being operated from Pakistan whose victims included several air force personnel.

Hari Krishna Yadav, a resident of Zameera village in Sikandra district who retired from BSF in August 2010, claimed he fell victim to the lottery fraud and later turned into an agent to dupe others, Ramabai Nagar Superintendent of Police Ashutosh Kumar said. Investigating teams from Lucknow including of Anti-Terrorism Squd have reached the district today. A team of Air Force officers has also arrived here since it is believed that some Air Force personnel have also fallen victim to the lottery fraud. "In March 2010, Yadav received a call on his mobile phone from an unknown Pakistani number informing him that he had won Rs 25 lakh in a lottery. The caller who identified himself as Mahender Singh asked Yadav to deposit some amount in a bank account in order to receive the lottery prize," Ramabai Nagar SP Ashutosh Kumar told PTI. Lured by the lottery amount, he deposited Rs 13 lakh in instalments in an account of an Indian bank. However, when the promised lottery amount did not turn up, Yadav became suspicious and demanded his money back. The caller them asked him to work as an agent and to recover his money in the form of commission, Kumar said. Police said Yadav opened a bank account in Sikandra area and other victims of the lottery fraud were asked by those running the racket to deposit the money in his account. "Police found that on November 11, Rs 11 lakh were withdrawn from the account and approximately Rs 20,000- Rs 25,000 were withdrawn later on consecutive days," Kumar said. Yadav told the police that the caller had asked him to transfer the withdrawn amount through an ITZ cash card and he received some of the money as commission. "Since the fake lottery scam was being coordinated from Ramabai Nagar the investigation has been handed over to the areas police team," said Kanpur IGP Vijay Kumar. As no FIR has been registered in the case, Yadav has been not been arrested and has been taken into custody for questioning, police said

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