The 'Great Gambler' who never won

Syed Amin Jafri in Vijaywada

The Euro Lottery hoax is not the only gamble that Kola Venkata Krishna Mohan lost in his life. Police records reveal that he had tried his hand at every conceivable form of gambling with disastrous consequences in the last few years.

"Kola Mohan was a pathological gambler: betting, playing cards and races were a way of life for him," alleges Vijayawada Police Commissioner Sudeep Lakhtakia. The police already have a thick dossier on Kola Mohan which carries all the details of how he fooled the press, banks and even the state's chief minister by claiming that he had won the $ 19.8 million Euro Lottery.

"We have learnt he was losing about Rs 100,000 to 200,000 a day. He now alleges that he was cheated by a syndicate. He also claims to have cleared dues of around Rs 20 million to 30 million to his lenders," Lakhtakia said.

And while the police report is revealing, a personal profile prepared by Kola Mohan himself for circulation among the people he dealt with gives a more intimate peek into his personality.

This curriculum vitae tells us that Kola Mohan was born at Eluru in a middle-class family. However, that is all it tells us about the Great Gambler's childhood, quickly moving to his more noteworthy achievements as a contractor, exporter and globe trotter.

The bio-data describes Kola Mohan as a 'a national and international class contractor' and adds that his work as a contractor took him to Europe, the US, the Middle East and the South East Asia.

He also dabbled in exports for seven years, exporting primarily agro-commodities to the Middle East. His other commercial activities included supply of engineering equipment to major Indian companies and 'petroleum pipeline supplies' to two multinationals -- one German and other French.

And how can we be allowed to forget the grand event -- his winning the Euro Lottery. It is mentioned as 'the biggest achievement of my life' in his bio-data.

Kola Mohan was also a serious philanthropist, only it now turns out that the money was somebody else's.

He donated Rs 100,000 to the Kargil Relief Fund, Rs 150,000 to the Police Medicare Fund and Rs 100,000 to the Child Aid Foundation, Vijayawada. He had also enrolled himself as a life patron of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Vihar (Street Children Welfare Organisation), Vijayawada.

While Kola Mohan's 'personal profile' says he graduated in commerce and then went on to complete a hotel management course at the Food Crafts Institute, Hyderabad, the police says he completed only his intermediate and decided not to study further.

The police also call his claims of being a contractor and an exporter a pack of lies. "Kola Mohan was a small-time trader. At one point of time he was manning a public call office booth in Vijayawada. He did dabble in exports, but was never very successful,'' says Lakhtakia

He first travelled abroad in 1986 and made many trips thereafter.

He went to Europe sometime in 1998 and picked up an Euro Lottery ticket. Though he did not win the lottery, that is when the germ of 'the crime of the millennium' was born.