Three held in Hawala racket, Rs 28 lakh seized

Hyderabad: Task Force personnel busted a Hawala Money Transfer Racket operating from Gujarati Galli, Koti here and apprehended three persons and seized Rs 27.9 lakh, seven Mobile Phones from their possession.

The accused were identified as Deevi Madhusudhana Prasad, 65, Senior Manager, KNR Constructions Ltd, Kavuri Hills, Madhapur; Sohanlal alias Sonu, 22, organizer of Hawala business near Gowliguda Chaman, Hanuman Temple and Kishore Kumar, 27, Mobile shop owner at Gujarati Galli Koti.

One Balwanth Singh, a native of Rajasthan migrated to Hyderabad along with his family members and used to do bangle business at Gowliguda Chaman. Later, he came across several Hawala Money Transfer agents and developed contacts with Kamal, Vikram of Delhi and Shanker of Mumbai. As he found the illegal business of Hawala much profitable, he established a Hawala Money Transfer business from Ashok Bazar, Gowliguda and Gujarati Galli, Koti, Hyderabad by hiring the employees. Balwanth Singh used to communicate with others through Whatsapp by maintaining a code of identification with unique currency serial number on One Hundred Rupee Note, Fifty Rupee Note and so on. (NSS)