Money laundering racket busted in Madhya Pradesh

A hawala racket being run through courier agencies was busted with the arrest of a dozen people and the seizure of Rs.3 million from them, a police official said Sunday. “The Crime Branch Saturday evening conducted raids at two places in the state capital and unearthed a network of hawala transactions,” Bhopal Superintendent of Police Jaideep Prasad told IANS Sunday.

Eight people were rounded up in the first raid in Old Bhopal area where the police recovered Rs.2.7 million.

“The kingpin, Vijay Ramchandani, who owns Bhole Bhandari courier service, had links in all major cities of the country. He has confessed he used to send out Rs.50-60 lakh (Rs.5-6 million) of money a week,” Prasad said.

After his arrest, another raid was carried out in MP Nagar in New Bhopal area, where a separate hawala racket was being run by Kamlesh Gyanchandani. Two of his accomplices were arrested and about Rs.300,000 was recovered from them.

“Registers containing details about their links and the names (in code) of the businessmen who sent money to other cities have been recovered. We have seized 13 mobile phones and a currency counting machine,” he said.

Ramchandani reportedly told the police that he had been running the hawala racket for almost a year.

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