Hawala racket busted; 2 held with `1.25cr

Hyderabad: A City task force police on Saturday seized hawala money to the tune of Rs. 1.25 crore and arrested two members who were in possession of the illegal money. The duo, who were arrested with illegal money at an apartment in Abids, were identified as Ankit Jain and Uma Kanth. According to police, one of the accused Ankit Jain, a native of West Godavari had been running the hawala transaction, the illegal system of money transfer, from the city since last few years.

To play safe, the accused had been changing the base of operation for the unofficial transaction of money from locality to locality within the city. P Rameshiah, Additional DCP, Task Force, said the city was serving as central point for pumping illegal money to various places like Visakhapatnam, Bhimavaram, Vijayawa da, Delhi, Mumbai and other metropolitan cities- through his agents. A They indulged in transferring huge money even by road. A The duo along with A seized cash, currency counting machine, slips of hawala transaction, and other equipment were handed over to Income Tax Department.