Kolkata, July 22 (IANS): West Bengal Police busted a multi-crore fake lottery racket involving operators from the state and New Delhi and arrested two people.

A senior officer of the Asansol-Durgapur Police Commissionerate in West Burdwan District on Monday said the cops also seized sacks full of fake lottery tickets of the face-value of Rs 1 crore.

“On Sunday evening, our cops were informed by their sources that a huge consignment of fake lottery tickets had arrived somewhere in Asansol and attempts were being made to transfer them elsewhere.

“Accordingly, our teams started checking various vehicles at the main exit points of Asansol. Finally late on Sunday night an auto rickshaw was intercepted by our officers and nine sacks full of these counterfeit lottery tickets were seized,” said the Commissionerate official.

The police have arrested two persons in this connection and both will be presented at a District Court in Asansol on Monday.

Sources said that the arrested duo admitted that the fake lottery tickets were brought from New Delhi and were supposed to be circulated in the local markets in West Bengal.

The Commissionerate official said that the fake tickets were identical to the genuine ones and it would be impossible for common people to be able to identify them as counterfeits.

“Had they been able to circulate the tickets in the local markets, several people would have been duped of their hard-earned money,” he said.

Sources said that a number of rackets of fake lottery tickets were running in the Asansol belt for quite some time.

However, those rackets mainly originated from neighbouring Jharkhand and this was the first time that a New Delhi-Bengal nexus had surfaced.