
Bhimduttanagar, Nov 7: A racket of conmen has been found active in the district in the name of lottery with huge prize money.
The members of the gang are learnt to call unsuspecting people especially from the rural areas by phone and allure them promising that they would win huge amount of money if they take part in lottery.
Locals who have been cheated by this racket have said that this racket is operating from India.
Karna Bahadur Baniya of local Krishnapur is a case in point. In the hope of making big money, Baniya, one fine morning 15 days ago got a call from an Indian number and the person on the other end told him that he has won Rs 1.5 million lottery and asked to deposit some amount in the bank account. He also gave Baniya the bank account number.
Innocent Baniya followed the instruction. He deposited Rs 24,000 in the bank account given by the unknown caller. He waited for the Rs 1.5 million that he was told he won to be deposited in his bank account. But that never arrived.
Instead some days later when Baniya received another call asking him to deposit Rs 32,000 more to get his ‘lottery’ money. Baniya smelled rat and he did not deposit the money.
Ganesh Tamrakar of the same place also received a similar call informing that he had won a Rs 5 million lottery. Tamrakar was cautious and verified the truth by calling the lottery company in New Delhi. He was saved from being duped.
Chief District Officer Krishna Chandra Ghimire said the responsibility of investigating this type of cheating cases have been given to the National Investigation Bureau as it has been taking place with the involvement of national and international rackets.