Bhagalpur, Oct 9: Police have emphasised on tracking international phone calls made to the region following detection of a racket of money transfer from Pakistan to accounts of the residents in the Maoist-hit districts of eastern Bihar.

The police headquarters in Patna has already sought a report from the Jamui superintendent of police on transaction of money from abroad, particularly Pakistan, through bank accounts of some residents of the district. The pattern in which the money was transferred to the residents of Jamui, Lakhisarai, Munger and Bhagalpur resembled ways of hawala transaction with police suspecting that a person called “Bada Saheb” masterminding the racket from somewhere in Pakistan.

A top police officer, who agreed to talk to The Telegraph on condition of anonymity, said the racket was exposed during surveillance of cell phones. “In this Maoist belt, mobile surveillance is of utmost importance. It was during tracing mobile calls to check the Maoist menace that we realised that many calls were made to the region from Pakistan,” he said.

Jamui superintendent of police Ramnarayan Singh claimed that the money transfer racket an apparent bid to convert black money into white. Police have started preparing a list of persons, not only in Jamui but also in neighbouring districts, involved in the scam. “The government has its security agencies and there are experts in Patna. We will be in a position to provide you the details only after the probe is over,” he said.

The Jamui police last week arrested seven persons and found at least 20 ATM cards of different private and nationalised banks on them. The raid also led to the seizure of Rs 45,000 and dozen mobiles.

Jakir Hussain, station house officer of Jamui police station, said a search has been launched to trace an employee of the Deoghar branch of a private bank. “The employee opened accounts of residents who used to get money from Pakistan. The employee used to visit Jamui and get introduced to the vulnerable residents through a middleman, identified as Bilash Modi,” Hussain said.

“We found a visiting card of the bank employee on one of the arrested youths, Gautam Kumar Singh,” another police officer said. “Besides Bilash, two other persons — Mantu Mandal and Sunil — had links with the Pakistani agents. Mantu and Sunil operated from Lakhisarai and Deoghar (in Jharkhand), respectively. We are also trying to find out how the fake bank accounts were opened,” he added.