Who Is ¡®Lottery King¡¯ Santiago Martin, The Single-Largest Buyer Of Electoral Bonds?
The Election Commission of India has released the names of individuals and entities that have purchased electoral bonds from the State Bank of India to make political donations. Future Gaming and Hotel Services, a little-known lottery company was among the entities.
The Election Commission of India has released the names of individuals and entities that have purchased electoral bonds from the State Bank of India to make political donations.
While the list had names of some of the biggest corporate companies in the country, one of them has stood out.
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Future Gaming and Hotel Services
Future Gaming and Hotel Services, a little-known lottery company was the entity that purchased the most electoral bonds.
Future Gaming and Hotel Services is a company based in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu and has operations across south India and the North East.
It is owned by Santiago Martin, popularly known as the Lottery King of India.
MARTIN GROUP
Who is Santiago Martin
Not much is known about Martin other than the details mentioned on the website of his charity, the Martin Foundation.
According to the website, Martin started his career as a labourer in Myanmar's Yangon. In 1988, he returned to India and started a lottery business in Tamil Nadu. He later expanded the business in Karnataka and Kerala before moving into the northeast.
Apart from the lotteries, the Martin Group is also involved in real estate, construction, alternative energy, visual media, textiles, hospitality, health care, education, software, property development and more.
MARTIN GROUP
Political connections of Santiago Martin
While he has maintained a low public profile, Martin is well-connected in the political circles, cutting across party lines.
One of the first instances when Martin made headlines for his political connection was in the early 2000s when it emerged that he had made a donation of Rs 2 crore to CPIM's Kerala mouthpiece in the form of a bond.
In 2010 Martin had hired a senior Congress leader and lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi to represent him in a 2007 case.
But after Singhvi backed out due to political controversies, MK Damodaran, the legal advisor of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan represented him in a case in the High Court in 2016.
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He is also known to be close to the DMK in Tamil Nadu. His son-in-law Adhav Arjun was recently made the deputy general secretary of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) an ally of the DMK.
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