Ahmedabad: Enforcement Directorate (ED) has claimed that its probe into the Rs 5,395-crore hawala scam has shown that hawala operators were also involved in sending 2G-scam money to tax-safe havens such as Switzerland via Surat based firms.
ED sources said that new information has surfaced after the arrest of a Dubai-based businessman Manish Shah from Surat on July 1 by the agency's Ahmedabad zonal unit.
The sources said that evidences related to the routing of 2G scam kickback money abroad was found after Shah's arrest. They said that the 2G-scam money has been transferred from Chennai to Dubai and Hong Kong via Surat.
The sources claimed that the agency got hold of crucial inputs which indicated that the 2G-scam money was also illegally transferred to countries known as 'Tax Havens', such as Switzerland, from Chennai via Surat.
The sources said that Manish owns a trading firm in Dubai that is believed to have received over Rs 700 crore through various hawala channels from the key accused Afroz Fatta and Madanlal Jain, who allegedly ran a hawala racket of Rs 5,395 crore and later on arrested by the ED.
The ED busted the multi-crore hawala racket during their search operations in Surat in March 2014 based offices of some diamond traders including Fatta and Jain.
It was alleged that instead of importing diamonds, the duo made bogus import bills, claiming that they have purchased the diamonds from foreign traders.
Using these bills, it was alleged that the duo used to transfer money through their bank accounts. Thus, money went outside India without a single diamond imported in India.
