4 nabbed for ferrying hawala money in Indore

BHOPAL - A hawala (money laundering) racket was busted in Indore with the arrest of four people wearing specially-designed clothes to carry Rs.80 lakh with them, police said Sunday.

“Each of the four accused nabbed Saturday was carrying Rs.20 lakh in cash. The money was stashed into clothes having 20 pockets each,” said Gitesh Garg, a senior police official in Indore.

“The accused, identified as Rakesh Patel, Ashok Patel, Kirit Patel and Rajesh Patel, hail from small towns in Gujarat. They were wearing a shirt, T-shirt, inner wear and special inner wear vest,” said Rakesh Vyas, the police official who led the team that arrested the four men.

“This special dress was tied with strings at five places. The money was securely tied to their body,” he added.

“Interrogation of the accused revealed that they were working for different hawala agents on a monthly salary of Rs.4,000 for ferrying the consignment of cash,” said Indore Additional Superintentent of Police Manoj Singh.

A police official said such errand runners mostly belong to poor families and often do not know the volume of cash they are carrying. The kingpins keep their families under surveillance till they complete their mission successfully, he added.