TGSCB Sleuths Identify 12 Hawala Operators Involved in ₹175 Cr. Cyber Fraud

Hyderabad:The Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGSCB) that is probing the ₹175-crore cyber fraud has reportedly identified 12 local hawala organisers, who have been operating high-value cash transactions all over the country by luring gullible persons and getting current bank accounts opened in their names.

TGSCB took up the case suo muto, after acquiring information from National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) about 600 petitions against high-value cash transactions from six current accounts at SBI Shamsheergunj.

Bureau officials had arrested Mohammed Shoeb Tauqeer, 34, of Vijaynagar Colony and Mahmood Bin Ahmed Bawazir,(43, of Moghalpura on August 24. Tauqeer is said to be the younger brother of the prime hawala organiser Mohammed Farooq Tauqeer, who along with other 11 such hawala operators, had in two months used these current accounts to float their high valued illegal `hawala` cash of over ₹175 crore to their, sources in TGSCB disclosed.

Farooq, who is presently in Dubai, directed his brother Shoeb, current account holder Bawazir and another person to get four more persons to open current accounts in the Shamsheergunj branch of SBI.

The TGSCB team got a major breakthrough on Wednesday when they arrested the branch manager Upadhya Sandeep Sharma, who colluded with the fraudsters, facilitating the opening of six new current accounts in his branch. This led to withdrawal of illegal hawala funds and orchestrating the diversion of ₹175 crore within two months.

During interrogation Sharma allegedly confessed that he was involved in the racket on a commission basis. He said he had deleted transaction details from the database, reliable sources said.

However the TGSCB retrieved the data from the seized devices of the branch manager and his laptop. The teams collected the names and addresses of Farooq’s and his 11 associates and conducted a search operation on the same day.

The teams have been looking for the hawala operators or their family members on the address mentioned in their Aadhaar cards.

TGSCB managed to collect their photographs from the Aadhaar centres and confirmed with immigration department that they had left for Dubai long back and started operating the hawala racket from there.