More than 350 people suspected to be involved in the hawala operation, as cops calculate the total turnover of the racket
More than 350 people suspected to be involved in the hawala operation, as cops calculate the total turnover of the racketu00a0
An investigation into the cricket betting racket that was busted last Sunday by Pune Anti-Terrorism Cell (PATC) has exposed local hawala connections behind it. More than 350 persons from across the state are involved in these operations and will be arrested after further investigations.
The PATC and Crime Branch had raided two different places in Pimpri and Kondhwa during the India-South Africa cricket world cup match on Sunday. Seven persons were arrested and 19 mobiles, two computers and television sets were recovered from the suspects in the raid.
Of the 19, call details of only seven mobiles have been verified while 12 others are yet to be checked. "Only after a detailed forensic report and further investigations, the total turnover of betting racket will be known. We are working on it." said Sunil Tambe, police inspector of the PATC.
The computers and mobiles recovered from the raid were sent to the Kalina forensic lab, where further tests revealed startling facts about the local hawala operations. The decision to opt for forensic tests was taken as the transactions were in code language, the police said.
"Five of the arrested suspects are local businessmen who were a part of the hawala racket. They are connected with other men hailing from the city and other parts of the state, who too are suspected to be involved in all these transactions," Tambe said.
"We have found call recordings of about eight hours, from 2pm to 10.30pm, on Sunday. Besides this, the forensic tests of the laptop and desktop computer hard disk has revealed details of more than 350 persons in the betting racket. We are verifying their whereabouts and upon further investigations they will be arrested,"
he added.
