21 arrested for sale of banned online lottery

Trichy: The city police arrested 21 people involved in sale of banned online lottery tickets in the city on Wednesday. Police sources said that the hunt is on to catch the mastermind behind the network. Sale of such banned tickets has been thriving in the city despite the arrest of kingpin S Manoharan in July 2017.

KK Nagar police arrested P Sasikumar, 37, and K Sakthivel, 42, from Jail corner on Wednesday and seized 15 tickets of other state lotteries, each priced at Rs 230. Ariyamangalam police nabbed T Meenakshi Sundaram, 45, and A Anandaraj, 51, from South Kattur and R Balachandran, 51, Ariyamangalam near Nehruji Nagar. The police seized a sheet from them with 42 lottery ticket numbers written on it. The price of each ticket was Rs 1,125. The Fort police arrested P Govindasamy alias Pavadairayan, 68, from Kasipalayam, and K Thulasiayya, 42, from Rock Fort and seized a paper in which numbers of 18 lotteries were written. The cost of one number was Rs 200. They were caught near Babu road.

The Gandhi market police arrested three people from two places. H Chellappa alias Mohammed Hussain, 42, from Palakkarai near Prabath junction and seized a sheet with lottery ticket numbers written on it. He was selling the numbers for Rs 420 each. In the second incident, R Palanisamy, 45, from EB road, and M Ganesan, 30, from Gandhi market, and confiscated the paper with numbers. Their selling price was Rs 470 per ticket.

The Srirangam police also arrested four people – S Mathaiyan, 72, from Woraiyur, and K Manivel, 48, from Thiruvanaikovil with 32 tickets numbers each priced at Rs 500, and P Narasimmaraj, 34, from Sathara street and B Balu from Srirangam and seized 30 lottery tickets each valued at Rs 350.

The Woraiyur police also apprehended four people in connection with the lottery sale. G Senthilkumaran, 36, and L Dheenadayalan, 49, both from Woraiyur, were caught selling lottery numbers for Rs 230 each near Nawab Thottam. J Rajkumar, 31, from Woraiyur, and B Sugumar, 45 from Puthur, were arrested near Takker road in the city in possession of numbers of lotteries each worth Rs 230.

The government hospital police also caught three people - A Sagayaraj, 60 from Nachikurichi, K Dhanasekaran, 35, from Malliampathu, and G Sivakumar, 26 from Puthur near fish market Puthur. They were in possession of five tickets each valued at Rs 350.