Hyderabad: The sleuths of the Enforcement Directorate conducted searches on the properties of the Heera Group of Companies at Toli Chowki. The ED is investigating the FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) case booked against it.
The Heera group is mostly into gold trading. However, it is also involved in banking, textile, real estate and other businesses. The Heera Group has companies in India and abroad and it is facing allegations of hawala transactions.
“We are probing FEMA violations. The group has several companies and offices in India as well as in Saudi Arabia, Ghana, China, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates. We are verifying whether they have RBI permissions and whether they are following RBI rules in conducting financial transactions,” said an ED source.
Task Force sleuths had busted an international hawala gang and seized Rs 84.75 lakh from them on May 17.
Police had arrested Shaik Mohammed Ashraf, P. Reddy Kumar, Rajendra Kumar Ambalal, Patel Jayesh Kumar, Patel Mahendra and Rathod Kanak from Himayatnagar. Mr Ashraf and Mr Reddy are employees of the Heera Group of Companies.
The Task Force said that the owner of the group, Shaik Nowhera, was named a prime accused. Nowhera is believed to be operating from Dubai. Four other accused employees of Patel Plastic Industries, owned by one Laxman, are supposed to have collected hawala cash from Heera group staff.
