January 10, 2025 08:14 am (IST)
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Hawala racket busted in West Bengal, Rs 80 cr recovered, 1 detained
Kolkata, Sept 24 (IBNS): The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), based on the reports of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), has conducted raids at several premises of a Tamil businessman in Kolkata and Siliguri in North Bengal and seized as many as Rs. 80 crores so far since Thursday morning, sources said.
According to sources, some teams of the CBDT raided one location in Siliguri and over ten locations in Kolkata on Thursday and unearthed the major money laundering racket.
One senior IB officer told IBNS: "Today we have busted a major financial racket which is estimated to be over Rs. 1000 crore and seized Rs 10 crore from Siliguri and at least Rs. 70 crore from Kolkata so far. Beside this, we also have seized many fake lotteries and currency-counting machines. We have raided the premises of businessmen S Nagarjan, Santiago Martin and one more who run a fake lottery business under the company’s name of General System and Future Plan Enterprise in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.”
“The cash were stashed in few almirahs, 16 gunny bags and 27 travel bags which were recovered from three locations in south Kolkata – 127-B, Sarat Bose Road, 75/3 S. N. Roy Road and 55, Hazra Road and Teesta Distributor and Ananda Mangal Square in Siliguri. According to reports, huge amount of currency has been transferred to Dubai by this International Hawala network," the source further said.
However, the CBDT has detained one X Alexander for his alleged involvement in the financial racket and he is being interrogated.
The three key accused including S Nagarjan and Santiago Martin are absconding and the CBDT officials have begun a search operation to find them, taking the help of the Kolkata Police, sources said.
According to sources, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is likely to take over the investigation of this case, taking assistance from the Income Tax (IT) Department.
However, till the last update came in, raids are being conducted in few locations in Kolkata and could be continued whole night.
(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)
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