ED seizes Rs 62.5 lakh hawala money from Kanyakumari

, Nov 11: The Enforcement Directorate today seized Rs 62.5 lakh 'hawala' money and detained three persons from a house in Kanyakumari district in this connection.

During a raid following specific inputs, the officials seized the currencies to the tune of Rs 62.5 lakh from the house of one Abraham Jeyakumar, known to be a hawala racketeer in Kovilvilai, ED Joint Director (Chennai Zone) K S V V Prasad said in a statement. Incriminating documents were also recovered during the raid, he said, adding "the seized money was part of the amount transacted in hawala payments received on behalf of one person in Saudi Arabia and it was meant for further distribution to local persons.

" Investigations are progressing under the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act-1999," he said.

Hawala refers to a scam involving some of the top leaders like V. C. Shukla, P. Shiv Shankar, Sharad Yadav, Balram Jakhar, and Madan Lal Khurana. The Indian political scam involved bribing politicians through hawala brokers, the Jain brothers. The scandal involved US$18 million.

Some of these leaders were acquitted due to lack of evidence as the Supreme Court refused to accept diaries as evidences.

PTI