The City Police on Thursday busted a suspected ‘hawala’ network in the suspect, arresting one person and seizing from him unaccounted money to the tune of Rs.59 lakh.
According to H. Venkatesh, City Police Commissioner, Nizamuddin of Karamana was nabbed from the Karamana bus-stand around 4.30 a.m. on Thursday when he was about to proceed towards Thampanoor with a bag containing Rs.59,88,000 in cash. It is learned that Nizamuddin, a suspected carrier who allegedly passed on Rs.57 lakh in several instalments over the last 11 days, was about to pass on Thursday’s instalment to a person who was reportedly waiting at the Thampanoor bus-stand.
Mr. Venkatesh said the cash was intended to be taken to Kozhikode and from there to Maharashtra. With Nizamuddin being nabbed, the other suspected carrier at Thampanoor had slipped away by the time the police reached Thampanoor. It was based on a tipoff received by Karamana sub inspector C. Mohanan that Nizamuddin was nabbed, he added.
Nizamuddin, the cash that was seized from him and other information including telephone numbers found on him have been handed over to the Income Tax Department for the rest of the proceedings, Mr. Venkatesh said.
This is the second major hawala network being busted in the city this year, with the first being a seizure of Rs.60 lakh from two spots and the arrest of five suspected carriers in the city in March.