January 09, 2025 01:41 pm (IST)
Follow us:
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)
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
Latest Headlines
PM Modi condoles death of six people in Tirupati stampede incident
Thu, Jan 09 2025
Days after condemning Pak airstrikes, India in a first engages with Afghanistan's Taliban regime
Thu, Jan 09 2025
Thank You Didi, writes Arvind Kejriwal on X after TMC backs AAP for Delhi Assembly polls
Wed, Jan 08 2025
India extends ex-Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina's visa: Reports
Wed, Jan 08 2025
India hands over High Impact Community Development Project to Nepal
Wed, Jan 08 2025