The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has raided multiple locations in Calcutta, including some authorised foreign exchange dealers, amid murmurs that the aim was to track suspected hawala transactions of “a few Bengal politicians and bureaucrats”.
The names have apparently emerged in probes over the past few months. The simultaneous raids for over seven hours on Thursday covered at least eight locations on Kalakar Street, Marquis Street, Park Lane and Sudder Street.
“Indian currency worth crores was seized. The exact amount can be declared only after counting,” said an investigator.
Although central agencies regularly carry out such exercises, Thursday’s action drew attention as agency sources said they were looking for “corroborative evidence” against some big names from Bengal.
“There have been intelligence inputs that some Bengal politicians and bureaucrats used the forex route to park money abroad,” said a source.
ED officers said chits and diaries seized from the locations would help them analyse the source of the money and may serve as evidence.
ED sources in Delhi said officers from other cities were sent to Calcutta to carry out the “operation with precision”. “The operation was kept under wraps till the last moment given the sensitivity of the matter,” a source in Delhi said.
“The forex (foreign exchange) market provides one of the safest passages to convert black money into white. Money changers usually keep more foreign exchange in hand than they officially declare. This can be manipulated if someone wants to illegally park money abroad,” another officer said.
A person who wishes to send cash to an oversees account without physical movement of the money deposits it with a local hawala agent. Such agents, in turn, contact their counterparts abroad to deposit the amount in foreign currency in an account there.
“As there is no electronic trail in such transactions, chits and diaries, where the names and amounts are mentioned, play a crucial role. Codes are used to indicate the nature of currency or the amount. The name of the person whose money is deposited is usually mentioned with initials,” the officer said.
Sovan-linked probe
The ED has summoned Avijit Ganguly alias Chiku, whom former Calcutta mayor Sovan Chatterjee had named as one of the partners of a company his estranged wife Ratna had floated. Ganguly has been asked to appear on Monday.
