Dhubri police bust hawala racket, arrest 2 agents

A CORRESPONDENT

DHUBRI: Dhubri police busted an international money laundering network of Bangladeshi currency. The police seized Rs 13 lakh and arrested two persons involved in it. It is the first such breakthrough.

Two persons are Sahidur Islam and Eusuf Ali of the Dhubri district. They were involved in the transfer of money for quite a long time.

This international money laundering, popularly known as hawala, has been going on since the partition of the country in 1947 from East Pakistan and the subsequent creation of Bangladesh in 1972 to the Dhubri district to run the illegal trade between the two countries such as cattle, drug, fake currency etc.

Addressing the media at Dhubri Police Station (Sadar), Dhubri Superintendent of Police Abhijit Gaurav said today that this was the first busting of the hawala network. The modus operandi of transferring Bangladeshi currency to hawala agents operating in India and laundering it into Indian currency for use in illegal trades came to light, the SP said.

"The money is routed from Bangladesh to Kolkata, then to Coochbehar and again to the Dhubri district from where it goes to South Samara-Mankachar, besides the traders in Garo Hills of Meghalaya," the SP added.

"It is important for the police to stop the financing of illegal trades and break the chain of money flow to the traders. Unless we stop this flow of money, illegal trades, including cattle and drug smuggling, will continue to thrive," he said.

Two hawala agents are under interrogation.

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