The city police have issued a Lookout Circular (LOC) against on-line gaming fraudster Anant alias Sontu Navratan Jain (40) from Civil Lines, Gondia, after they seized Rs 17 crore in cash, 14 kg of gold and 294 kg of silver collectively worth Rs 27 crore from the premises on Saturday. A police official said that the LOC was issued against Sontu who has been absconding, and is reportedly staying in Dubai. “If the immigration officers of a country at the airport have a Lookout Circular against an absconding offender, the absconding person can be nabbed by the officer. Thus, we are expecting the arrest of Sontu as soon as he checks-in at any airport across the globe,” the official informed.

 

Commissioner of Police (CP) Amitesh Kumar said that the seized cash would be deposited in the bank on Monday while the gold would be sent to a Government-appointed auditor for verification. He said, many complainants are expected to come forward against Sontu in the next couple of days as Sontu had allegedly defrauded many people of crores of rupees through an online application called “Diamond Exchange dot com.” The fraud came to light after a victim, a businessman with interests in grain and transport, approached the police. The businessman was fond of gambling and so was introduced to the accused, Sontu, by two traders from the city. Sontu allegedly convinced the victim to use his on-line gaming application, providing him with a username ID and password after taking an initial amount of Rs 8.50 lakh. The businessman had borrowed substantial sums from friends and relatives to fund his hobby of gambling. However, he later realised that the application was designed to manipulate results ensuring that the player always lost.

 

Feeling cheated and desperate to get back his lost money, the businessman confronted Sontu demanding his money back, but the latter refused. On the contrary, Sontu demanded the remaining amount of Rs 40 lakh from the businessman, which he had lost in the gamble. Sontu even threatened to kill him if he did not repay the amount. Following the threat, the victim managed to gather Rs 40 lakh from his friends and transferred the money to Sontu through a hawala trader last week. Depressed over the deteriorating financial situation, the victim attempted suicide