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Supreme Court restricts ED from accessing digital devices seized from ‘lottery king’ Santiago Martin, ED officials call it “unprecedented”

The court order says that ED can't access and copy the contents of two iPhone 15 phones and the devices belonging to the employees of the accused.

On Wednesday, 25th December, the Supreme Court (SC) restrained the Enforcement Directorate (ED) from using the digital devices seized during searches on “lottery king” Santiago Martin, his family, and employees. The court said that the ED can’t access or copy the content from the digital devices including phones and laptops for investigation.

This is after the ED conducted massive searches at multiple locations in West Bengal, Sikkim, and Tamil Nadu in connection with financial fraud of lottery and the corruption case involving money laundering through lottery tickets to certain influential people. The raid was conducted in November following a complaint filed by Meghalaya Police. The authorities accused the Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Limited of illegally monopolizing the state’s lottery business.

During the latest raids across 22 locations pan-India, the ED recovered Rs 12.41 in cash along with 17 mobile phones, hard drives, pen drives, and email backups. The SC however directed the ED saying that it had no authority to access the content from the digital devices seized during searches. The court order says that ED can’t access and copy the contents of two iPhone 15 phones and the devices belonging to the employees of the accused.

The Supreme Court’s order, issued by Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal on December 13th also stayed the summons issued by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) asking individuals to appear for data extraction from their devices.

The advocates appearing for the petitioner argued that unrestricted access to the personal digital devices seized during the raids violated their fundamental right to privacy. They further stated that such devices often store deeply personal and sensitive information. The ED however said that the ruling by the SC was unprecedented but not a major setback.

It said that it already had collected enough evidence including properties worth Rs 622 crore linked to Future Gaming.

The agency is probing a lottery scam case registered in 2012 against lottery baron Santiago Martin and others, in which the Sikkim government was allegedly cheated. The ED had earlier attached assets worth Rs 277.59 crore in the case. They included a large number of immovable properties in Tamil Nadu. On the basis of the charge sheets filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the ED had initiated a money laundering probe against Martin and his company, Future Gaming Solutions (P) Limited (presently Future Gaming and Hotel Services (P) Limited and formerly Martin Lottery Agencies Limited).

The agency had then alleged that Martin and others conspired to make wrongful gains. They entered into an agreement with State government officials, in contravention of the Lottery Regulations Act, under which the company could avoid remitting the face value of lottery tickets sold in Kerala to the State exchequer as sale proceeds. An illegal gain of over Rs 910.30 crore was made by inflating the prize-winning tickets’ claims from April 1, 2009, to August 31, 2010, as alleged.

In another case, the Enforcement Directorate in 2022 had also attached properties worth Rs 409.92 crore in the case against Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Limited and its various sub-distributors and area distributors for West Bengal. The ED probe is based on the cases registered by the Kolkata Police under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Lotteries (Regulation) Act. The attached assets are in the form of bank balance and mutual fund holdings.

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OpIndia Staff
OpIndia Staffhttps://www.opindia.com
Staff reporter at OpIndia

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