The Hyderabad police on Tuesday busted a 'hawala' or illegal money transfer racket with the arrest of seven people, and seized Rs 5 crore in cash. Two cars and a bike were also seized from the accused.
The accused were identified as Vipul (39), a manager in a private firm, Shailesh (49), Rajesh (31), Upendra (55), Chetan Kumar (39) and Vipul Kumar (29), who transported the cash and Arjun (28), a driver. All seven accused hailed from Gujarat.
The accused were nabbed near Jubilee Hills Check post at around 11 pm. The police said that the accused were on their way to deliver the cash to Mumbai in two cars, when they were caught. The arrests were carried out by the Commissioner’s Task Force, West Zone Team.
In a press note, the police said, "On enquiry, it was revealed that the accused persons are running the business of illegal money transfer i.e. supplying of cash without any accounts to needy customers with an interest of 0.6% by taking orders over their cell phones through their company."
In June, the Hyderabad police had unearthed another hawala money racket and held four persons with Rs 1.4 crore in cash.
"They were transporting money without any documents. On enquiry, they were unable to provide the details of money as such, and the four persons were taken in to custody and the unaccounted money was seized," the police had said at the time.
In the run-up to the Telangana Legislative Assembly polls in December last year, the Commissioner’s Task Force had busted a hawala money transfer racket and seized a net cash of Rs 3,13,44,000. Eight people were arrested in separate incidents, and the police said that the money was going to be used to influence voters.
Gold biscuits weighing 1.8 kg, worth Rs 60 lakh, was also seized at the time