Lottery scam accused moved Rs 4,000 crore through hawala

Chennai, Sept 28: The raid that was conducted at West Bengal last week which led to the unearthing of a major hawala racket connected to the Lottery Scam has revealed that huge sums of money had been transferred over the years abroad.

An estimated amount which the investigators say was transferred could be running into Rs 4,000 crore it has been found.

The raid that was conducted last week unearthed money to the tune of Rs 70 crore.

An officer with the enforcement directorate says that this is phase one of the probe and we are speaking to the agencies in the UAE and Saudi Arabia in a bid to get more details on the money that has been transferred.

Meanwhile the ED will also seek the help of the Research and Analysis Wing to unearth more details of the money that has been moved through the hawala channels to foreign locations.

The R&AW has prepared a report in which it terms the transfer of lottery scam money through hawala channels as "serious."

The R&AW suspects that the money which is transferred to the UAE could be controlled by the Dawood Ibrahim network. He has a deep rooted network abroad and has various sources through which he handles this racket, the R&AW also notes.

The ED on the other hand is probing the role of several fake companies that were set up to move the money out of West Bengal. Already two companies are under the scanner and the ED is probing the officials of this firm.

It was found that these two firms did not undertake any work and they acted as fronts for the money to be parked.

Several bank accounts were also opened in the name of these two companies based in Kolkata and Siluguri, West Bengal, the ED has also learnt.

The ED official say that they are also seeking the help of the Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Telangana police for more details on the lottery scam.

It has clearly not been controlled and continues to flourish the officer noted. It is a big probe with huge ramifications and needs to be probed with utmost precision and in phases, the ED official also informed.

OneIndia News