More money sent out of India, suspect officials

More money sent out of India, suspect officials
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Highlights

The Income Tax department has estimated that the hawala operators might have sent more money out of the country than what had been found when the case was cracked.

Visakhapatnam: The Income Tax department has estimated that the hawala operators might have sent more money out of the country than what had been found when the case was cracked.

They estimated that over Rs 800 crore was funneled out of the country from one single account from a public sector bank located in Kolkata in 2016.

The I-T officials and police are now suspecting the involvement of bankers in the case as Rs 90 crore cash was deposited in one single account on a single day in the same bank.


HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Rs 800 cr sent from a single account of a public sector bank located in Kolkata in 2016
  • Vizag police produce the main accused Vaddi Mahesh in court
  • Police Commissioner Yoganand says that the hawala case has been handed over to the CID as Vizag police does not have economic offences wing and trained manpower to handle such a major case
  • Points out that while probing the case, the police needs to work in coordination with investigating agencies such as CBI, ED and Interpol

Meanwhile, the city police on Monday produced the main accused in the case Vaddi Mahesh before the court and the preliminary investigation has revealed that a few businessmen in North India are also source of income for the scam.

Talking to newsmen here on Monday, city police chief T Yoganand said that the case has been handed over to CID for further investigation, as the city police does not have economic offences wing and trained manpower to handle this major case.

Going by the intensity of the multi-crore money laundering scam and foreign transaction involved in the major scam, the case has to be dealt with in various countries and coordinated with various other investigating agencies both nationally and internationally such as CBI, ED and Interpol, he added.

The case was initially investigated and unearthed by an IT Department team led by Income Tax Joint Director (Investigations) MVN Seshu Bhavanarayana. After three months of investigation, the IT department zeroed in on the accused Vaddi Mahesh, his father Vaddi Srinivasa Rao and two of his cousins Achanta Harish, Achanta Rajesh and five others.

Yoganand said that as per the initial questioning, Mahesh reportedly claimed that they were under invoicing imported rice cookers, alcohol and cigarettes to evade custom duty.

But this appears to be a wrong statement, as the IT department had filed an FIR stating that Mahesh and his gang had opened 12 shell companies and were operating 30 fictitious accounts to launder about Rs 1200 crore since 2013 by remitting to five foreign companies - one China, three in Singapore and one in Hong Kong, fraudulently towards purchase of customised software with the help of forged documents.

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