Illegal activity: Inter-state hawala gang held

Hyderabad: The city police busted a massive hawala racket on Tuesday by arresting six people near Hyderguda. The Commissioner’s Task Force, North Zone team, seized Rs 1.90 crore from the gang.

Senior officials said the gang has been active in the city for the past two months and is controlled by the kingpin Vijay Bhai, a native of Ahmedabad.
Police suspects the racket is active in different parts of the country, and jointly operate with their counterparts in foreign countries.

While the gang leader, Vijay Bhai, is absconding, the police arrested three gang members from Gujarat — Patel Jatinder Kumar Kanji Bhai, 42, and Patel Dinesh, 32, both from Mahesana Taluk, and Patel Narendra, 38, of Ahmedabad. The two other members arrested are Mohammed Rafi, a Karnataka native, and Imranuddin, 28, a history sheeter from Bahadurpura.

Additional commissioner of police Anjani Kumar said that following a tip off, police officials intercepted the gang while they were travelling in a car on Tuesday afternoon. “The money was kept in five bags in the car, and when they were asked about the origin of the money, none of them gave a clear answer,” Mr Kumar said.

One of the accused, Patel Jitendar, is an employee of Vijay Bhai, and handles the hawala racket in Hyderabad by collecting money from various unidentified persons and delivers it to customers. “They pool money from within the city and do the transaction in order to evade the Income Tax Department,” said an official.

Top police officials said they have started investigating the source of the money and activities of the gang, and informed the Income Tax officials. “We are handing them over to the IT department, who will be contacting the Gujarat IT officials for a joint investigation,” Mr. Kumar said.