Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has staved off an immediate political crisis by asking for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the lottery scandal, but his worries are far from over.
Barely two months after the state government had knocked at the CBI’s doors to ensure that there was a fair probe into the mysterious death of IAS officer DK Ravi, little could Siddaramiah have imagined that he would again have to seek the help of the country's top investigating agency to probe another scam.
The arrest of Rajan Natarajan alias Pari Rajan, alleged to have run a lottery empire in the state for years, and the subsequent investigation by the Criminal Investigating Department (CID), have thrown open a Pandora’s box which the state government cannot ignore only at its own peril.
The fact that the lottery business had thrived in the state under the very nose of the law and that this happened with the senior police officers being in the know of things reflects badly on the government.
How skeletons tumbled out
In mid-april, Rajan was caught in sting operation by a private television channel bragging about his “links” with several top police officers and how his trade was flourishing with their blessings. The government immediately ordered a CID investigation that had skeletons tumbling out of the closet.
The CID found that several senior police officers were possibly involved in the racket. The department’s interim report named four serving IPS officers and two retired officers who were in touch with Rajan, now in police custody. The first to be suspended was R Dharanesh, superintendent of police with the lottery enforcement wing. Next was additional commissioner of police, law and order (west) Alok Kumar. Apart from being in constant touch with Rajan, Kumar, a 1994 batch officer, was also accused of attempting to prevent a sub-inspector of the lottery enforcement wing from arresting Rajan.
With it becoming increasingly clear that the lottery scam was not just about a man from small-time Kolar running a racket, and allegations flying thick and fast, the government had to seek the CBI’s help.
Siddaramaiah’s exigent move was two-pronged: take the sting out of the Opposition’s campaign and also show that he is out here to provide a clean administration. The Congress leader thrives on his “clean” image and does not take kindly to allegations of corruption.
A network, a nexus
The 52-year-old Pari Rajan was a small cog in the big wheel; he could not have run a big network without support from the police and political bigwigs. The scam is reckoned to be worth around Rs5,000-7,500 crore, and has spread to neighbouring Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh / Telengana. The single-digit lottery was also being run in the Northeast, where lotteries are popular.
If the CBI follows the money trail, it is likely to nail more politicians and policemen. And the BJP, which has been alleging involvement of the chief minister himself in the scam, will find it difficult to come clean. The scam did not grow overnight after Siddaramaiah took over as chief minister – it struck roots immediately after lottery was banned by the Janata Dal (S) government of HD Kumaraswamy in March 2007, and had been spreading its tentacles ever since . In fact, the man known only by his first name of Michael and said to be Rajan’s immediate boss, was arrested by the police in 2009 and 2010 when the BJP was in power in the state. Michael was left off on both occasions.
The ostensible reason why Michael had managed to slip out of the police’s dragnet was that he had apparently quit the lottery trade, and switched over to the real estate business. This is where the CBI probe can take an ugly turn since many illegal lottery operators are said to use real estate as a front. Many of them are reported to have invested heavily in Bangalore and Ramanagaram districts. As it often happens in financial scams, one thing usually leads to another.
There are other angles to this case that can be more embarrassing for the BJP, than the Congress. The mastermind behind this scam is the Coimbatore-based lottery bigwig Santiago Martin, who operates legally in West Bengal, Assam and Sikkim. Martin's wife Leema Rose is a senior office-bearer of the Indhiya Jananayaka Katchi (IJK), an ally of the BJP. Rose incidentally shared the dais with then PM-aspirant Narendra Modi at an election rally in Coimbatore last year. Martin has been attacked by both the AIADMK and DMK parties, and has a number of land-grab cases against his name.
This could turn out to be a mini-hawala scandal of sorts – where the list of culprits cuts across party lines. And possibly across inter-state boundaries too.
