Hawala racket busted; police seize Rs 1.4 crore in cash

Hyderabad: The Task Force officials busted a hawala racket and arrested a jewellery merchant and four others and seized Rs 1.4 crore in cash. The accused jewellery merchant turned hawala racketeer was allegedly operating an illegal business from Abids for the past five years. The seized cash was being exchanged between two companies based in the city and Odisha respectively. 

Highlights:

• Kingpin Atul native of Gujarat
• Cash being exchanged between two firms 
• Companies based in city, Odisha 
• Atul started hawala biz in 2013
• He set up an office for smoother workflow
• Developed contacts with other hawala brokers 
• Targeted metro cities to carry out ops
• Used WhatsApp to communicate
• Code of unique currency serial number used

According to police officials, the kingpin of the racket Jayesh Kumar Patel alias Atul is a native of Gujarat and started the hawala business in the year 2013. A businessman of diamond and gold jewellery, Atul came into contact with some hawala agents and found this lucrative and indulged himself in the illegal business activity. He also established an office and engaged employees for smoother workflow. 

“Since then, he had been organising illegal hawala money transfer business clandestinely and supplying money on commission basis at the rate of 0.6 per cent to 0.8 per cent,” said V V Srinivasa Rao, City Police Commissioner.
 
The prime accused Jayesh Kumar Patel developed contacts with other illegal hawala brokers across India, particularly in metropolitan cities and used to communicate with others through messaging app Whatsapp by maintaining a code of identification with unique currency serial number on Rs 100 note and other notes. 

One of the modus operandi being used in this racket was generation of ‘fictitious invoices’ by the companies. The companies in the question are Rayalaseema Steel Re-Rolling Mills Private Limited, based in the city and Scan Energy and Power Limited, based in Odisha, whose Chief Financial Officer Arun Kumar Dadhichi, a resident of Somajiguda was also apprehended during the operation. 

The case was cracked following seizure of cash from two hawala agents, Ganesh Satyanarayan Saboo and Bonaboina Vigneshwar, who were travelling along with cash on a two-wheeler.  

Earlier, a case was also booked in 2014 against the prime accused Jayesh by the Income Tax Department, whose annual turnover now reached Rs 200 crore per annum. Two of the employees working for Jayesh who were also nabbed are Vanrajsinh Bhamarsinh Chauhan alias Vanraj and Patel Pradeep Kumar. 

The Commissioner said that there could some more operators, about four to five who are operating from the city, which means that the hawala money in the market was about Rs 1,000 crore per annum. 

He said since the money from two private companies is involved, the owners of these companies will also come under the scanner and will be questioned. 

“All the accused along with cash will be handed over to Income Tax department,” he added. IT Deputy Director, Rajeshwar Reddy who was present on the occasion said the department will be conducting an enquiry by scrutinising those who are involved. “If they are unable to explain the source of this cash, we shall initiate criminal proceedings against them,” 
he said.