The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday seized around Rs 3 crore from a businessman’s house in south Kolkata’s Lake Market area, apart from two other places as part of its ongoing probe into an alleged lottery scam, an officer said.

The central agency conducted search operations at multiple locations in West Bengal since Thursday in connection with the alleged scam. According to a senior ED officer, the raids uncovered approximately Rs 3 crore in cash, and the counting process is still ongoing.

A note-counting machine was brought to the businessman’s residence on Kavi Bharati Sarani to facilitate the tallying of the seized money, the official further said.
Additionally, the ED also brought similar equipment to another location in Madhyamgram, in North 24 Parganas district, where search operations have been underway since Thursday.

The agency searched a building in Madhyamgram’s Michael Nagar, reportedly being used both as an office and a godown for the alleged lottery operation. According to an ED official, the lottery tickets, were being printed and distributed from the building.

During the raid, the agency confiscated several documents from the site. “The search is on. We have seized several documents, but cannot talk about the money part at the moment,” an ED official said.

The Enforcement Directorate investigation into the lottery scam is part of a broader money laundering probe, that extends nationwide, with searches taking place in West Bengal, Sikkim, and Tamil Nadu. The ED previously attached assets worth over Rs 277 crore in Tamil Nadu as part of the investigation into the scam.