CBI officials visit lottery shop, seeks details of ticket that got TMC's Anubrata Rs 1 cr prize

As they could not provide us with the details, we asked them to visit our office in Bolpur with all information, the official told PTI.Mondal was arrested by the CBI in August in connection with its probe into a cattle smuggling case.

Officials of the CBI on Friday visited a lottery shop in Bengal's Birbhum district, where jailed TMC leader Anubrata Mondal had bagged a prize of Rs 1 crore and sought details of the ticket he had bought.

A senior official of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said the officials spoke to the owner of the shop in Bolpur and other persons employed there, he said. ''We sought details of the ticket on which Mondal won the cash prize of Rs 1 crore. As they could not provide us with the details, we asked them to visit our office in Bolpur with all information,'' the official told PTI.

Mondal was arrested by the CBI in August in connection with its probe into a cattle smuggling case. A source close to him revealed that Mondal had earlier this year won Rs 1 crore on a lottery ticket, which was reportedly purchased by his bodyguards on his request.

Asked what could be the connection between Mondal winning the lottery to the cattle smuggling case, the CBI officer said that the agency suspects that proceeds earned from the ''crime'' was ''actually diverted to the lottery business to make black money white''.

''There are high chances that the black money earned from cattle smuggling was used in the lottery business. We are investigating the matter. We are talking to several people,'' the CBI officer said. Mondal's daughter Sukanya was questioned by an Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the money trail in the cattle smuggling case, at its Delhi headquarters on Wednesday.