THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CBI probe into lottery scam involving lottery dealer Santiago Martin has found out that Sikkim state lottery was widely used for money laundering.

According to the CBI report accessed by TOI, out of 202 first prizes that were claimed on Sikkim Super and Dear series tickets sold in the state between January 1 and August 31 of 2010, 199 first prizes were won by people living outside the state. Out of this, 150 first prizes were claimed by Maharashtra natives.

Last month, the state government requested the Centre for extension of ban on Sikkim lottery in the state by citing CBI's findings in the seven cases against Martin. Sources in finance department said CBI report would be sufficient to prevent martin's re-entry to Kerala despite the recent Supreme Court order in his favour.

Most of the winners told CBI that they had bought Sikkim lottery tickets from middlemen to launder money. They claimed to have paid middlemen more than the prize money. The first prize was Rs20 lakh.

The list of such claimants includes contractors, municipal corporation employees, government employees mostly in PWD, local self-government departments, jewellers and real estate brokers.

CBI also found that Martin's firm M/s Future Gaming Solutions India Private Limited never returned unsold tickets that won first and second prizes to the public exchequer of the Sikkim government and obtained the wrongful gain to themselves.

"On an average, 50% of tickets remained unsold and the loss incurred to the government exchequer runs into crores of rupees," the report said. According to CBI sources, the first prize winning, unsold tickets were used for using several purposes, including real estate deals.

"The government has already furnished the copies of the CBI report to the Centre and the high courts of Guwahati and Delhi where we are fighting several cases related to the ban," government sources said.

The government has already filed a protest statement in the court against CBI's decision to close cases which lack enough ground for prosecution.

"The case will again come up in the CBI court on September 17. The state will go for a detailed statement with regards to the remaining cases then," sources added.