'Lottery king' Santiago Martin and family moves Madras high court challenging attachment of properties worth Rs 451.22 crore by ED

CHENNAI: Madras high court on Tuesday ordered notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on pleas moved by 'lottery baron' Santiago Martin, his wife Leema Rose, daughter Daisy Aadhav Arjuna, wife of Tamil Nadu PWD minister Aadhav Arjuna, and companies owned by Martin's son Charles challenging attachment of properties owned by them worth Rs 451.22 crore for alleged offence of money laundering.

The first bench of chief justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and justice G Arul Murugan passed the order on 39 batch of pleas moved by the family and the companies owned by them pertaining to alleged proceeds of crime totalling to Rs 910.29 crore.

The issue pertains to search and seizure conducted by the ED on May 11 and 12, 2023, at the premises associated with the family.

The searches were conducted based on a CBI chargesheet dated Feb 3, 2014, alleging commission of offences under Sections 120B, 420 Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with Sections 4(d), 4(f), 7(3) and 9 of the Lotteries (Regulation) (LR) Act.

It was alleged that the lottery distributor and other persons had cheated and caused wrongful loss to the state of Sikkim by entering into an alleged conspiracy to violate the provisions of the LR Act.

A total of 32 FIRs registered in connection with the offence were transferred to the CBI in which closure reports were filed in 25 cases and chargesheets were filed in seven cases.

Admitting the appeals, the court directed the petitioners to serve the entire copies of the case documents to the ED and adjourned the hearing after six weeks.