New Delhi, May 5 – Hawala operators have now devised an ingenious route of sending black money through railway consignments to their intended customers in the country. Fearing that their money would be robbed on the land route, these hawala operators are now booking rail wagons to send and receive huge amounts of cash hidden in goods parcels.
Sleuths of the Delhi Police stumbled upon the new ‘railway wagon’ route when they were investigating a kidnapping-cum robbery case. On April 22, Rishi Chand, who worked for an Allahabad-based cargo carrier company, informed the police that some men had robbed a parcel delivered by the Prayagraj express at Delhi railway station on April 13.
The arrest of four men, including two constables and a railway contractor, for the robbery of `50 lakh blew the lid off this new hawala route. A Crime Branch officer said the hawala business works on the principles of trust and loyalty.
Black money worth crores is transacted in the hawala market of Delhi, Mumbai and other states on a daily basis. Since the cash is in huge amounts, these money consignments are delivered by ‘angadias’ (trusted human couriers).
“They first book a railway wagon to send goods consignments to their business partners in other states. They then bribe a railway employee so that their consignments are loaded without checking. Cash is hidden inside these consignments,” another police source said.
Another advantage of using the ‘railway wagon” route is the money gets delivered or received quickly. The government machinery can be avoided thereby avoiding tax too.
The source said the hawala operators dropped their earlier Demand Draft (DD) route of sending money after some miscreants stole the demand drafts with the help of some insiders. Later, they started sending money through cars. But there were instances when angadias were robbed. Such robberies were not reported to the police as the cash involved was black money.
Few months ago, Delhi-based bookie Rajesh Kalra became a victim of the `8 crore daylight heist in Lajpat Nagar. Sleuths had found that black money was being transported through cars.
-INDIA TODAY
