For the second time this year, the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday raided the properties and office premises of lottery baron Santiago Martin and his relatives in Chennai and Coimbatore.
The ED sleuths accompanied by CRPF personnel, who provided security started the searches at the houses of his son, Tyson, in Triplicane, son-in-law Aadhav Arjuna in Teynampet close to the upmarket Poes Garden in the city.
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Aadhav Arjuna is a Deputy General Secretary of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), a key ally of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu. In Coimbatore, simultaneous raids were conducted at the Martin Group of Companies.
The fresh raids are being carried out following a Madras High Court order, which overturned a lower court closing an FIR registered against him in connection with the seizure of Rs 7.2 crore from his residence on the basis of a report filed by the Chennai City Central Crime Branch Police.
Accepting the CCB’s report, the Judicial Magistrate, Alandur, in the city, had closed the FIR in favour of Martin, his wife Leema Rose and three others. However, on an appeal by the ED, a Division bench of the High Court last month had permitted the agency to proceed with its investigation into the money laundering case even though the state police had closed the predicate offence.
A major donor for political parties including the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu through electoral bonds, Martin had come under the ED scanner earlier. He had contributed Rs 1300 crore between 2019 and 2024. Martin is the founder of Future Gaming Solutions India Pvt Ltd, distributor of Sikkim Lotteries. Future Gaming had bought electoral bonds for Rs 1368 crore.
In March this year, the ED had conducted searches on the Martin Group and its associate firms in a case pertaining to a fraud which caused a loss to the Sikkim Government to the tune of Rs 910 crore by inflating the claim of prize winning tickets in 2009 and 2010. Following the raid, the ED had attached assets linked to Martin worth Rs 457 crore.
