Police seize more than Rs 1 crore in hawala in a month

Hyderabad: Over the past month, police have seized more than Rs 10.96 crore in suspected hawala money in the city and suburbs. While some suspected hawala operators were caught, some sub-operators with money and a handful of others were detained by police for failing to account for the money.

On September 29, Hyderabad police confiscated Rs 1.24 crore in unaccounted-for money from a person in Humayunnagar. He was a businessman and claimed to have collected the money from Gujarathi Galli in Koti and handed it to four people. On October 9, the police seized 2.49 billion unaccounted for money and detained three people. When police got the news, they caught them and found cash in their bags.

Police are reported to have stopped two vehicles on October 11 and seized Rs 1 million. 3.5 million cash from Himayatnagar. The six people in the car reportedly collected the money from Himayatnagar and handed it over to another person on the outskirts of the city on the way to Hayathnagar.

In another case, on October 12, police confiscated Rs 1 lakh. 20 million in cash, suspected to be hawala money from the four. According to police, four people were waiting at Banjara Hills Road No 12 with cash, but based on specific information, they were caught. They reportedly received instructions from a contact in Gujarat to hand over the cash to another in Banjara Hills.

At MJ Bridge in Jumerat Bazar, police busted a hawala money racket on October 21, arrested four people and seized Rs 11 crore in unaccounted for cash. Police caught the gang while inspecting the vehicle after being tipped off, and when questioned were unable to provide any satisfactory answers to the question of cash.

A racket suspected of hawala was seized by police on October 23 and confiscated Rs. 6.35 million for 5 people. Police raided an electrical warehouse in the troop bazaar, and those arrested revealed they were associate operators of hawala businesses.