Bihar police on June 10 busted a huge ‘Hawala network’ being operated from Siwan district in Bihar through which massive funds are being channelised from Arab countries to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Israel and others via India.
As per the information received, acting on a tip-off, the district police on June 10, raided the house of Harendra Singh in Brahmasthan village under Bhagwanpur Haat police station limits and arrested as many as three accused for operating a Hawala network from Siwan.
The accused have been identified as Sheikh Kalim, a resident of Miralipur under Thanwe police station limits of Gopalganj, Rajesh Kumar, a resident of the Sadhu Chak village under Town Thana Gopalganj and Manu Kumar Singh of Brahmasthan under Bhagwanpur Haat police station limits of Siwan districts.
The police team during the raid also seized a 30.06 bore sporting rifle, one revolver, 18 live cartridges and one credit card from the accused’s possession. It’s been reported that as many as 19 debit cards, 06 mobile phones, and 40 sim cards have also been recovered from the accused. The police team has also seized several bank passbooks of different people along with Rs 2.67 lakhs from the possession of the accused.
During the primary investigation, the arrested accused revealed that the network is being operated by Rajkumar Sharma and Vishwajeet Kumar, both residents of the Brahmasthan village of Siwan, following which the team also raided the house of Rajkumar and seized objectionable materials from there.
It’s been learnt that the accused were luring the villagers to open bank accounts in which crores of rupees from Arab countries are being received and then channelized to countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Israel.
Sharing the details of the incident, Siwan police wrote, while taking to Twitter, “Members of an international syndicate who were involved in channelizing money received from Arab countries to Pakistan and others have been nabbed by the Siwan police.
https://twitter.com/bihar_police/status/1668122796809936897?s=19
It’s been reported that an FIR pertaining to the incident has been filed in the Cyber police station of Siwan, and the investigation is still ongoing.
It is to be noted that the National Investigative Agency (NIA) had also unearthed a multi-state massive Hawala network being operated from Bihar and Karnataka with its roots in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in March this year.
The central agency also arrested Mohd. Sinan, Iqbal, Sarfaraz and Rafeek, all residents of Karnataka along with one K.M. Abid, a resident of Kasargod in Kerala. The investigative agency.
had asserted that members of the banned outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) in Bihar were using the network to route funds for the outlawed outfit.
The counter-terror agency had also alleged that despite the ban, a few members of the banned outfit in Bihar were still involved in carrying forward the acts of PFI in a clandestine manner.
