Buta son probe: Key hawala dealer shows up in court

According to sources,phonetaps show Patel was the man Sarabjot alias Sweety first called to have the alleged bribe of Rs 1 crore collected from Nashik-based contractor Ramarao Patil in July last week. Sweety was then in Delhi,and Patel,then in Bangalore,asked two other hawala dealers,Madan Singh and Dhunka Singh,to collect the money from Patil in Mumbai.

The CBI was by then already on Sweety’s trail — having put his phones under surveillance after Ramarao Patil went to the agency to complain Sweety had offered to ‘fix’ a case against him at the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC),where his father Buta Singh is Chairman,in exchange for a hefty payoff.

It is learnt Sanwla Singh Patel’s transactions are already under the Enforcement Directorate’s scanner. A CBI officer who declined to be named told The Indian Express,“Patel’s hawala links are being probed by the ED. But the fact that his call details match with those of Sarabjot,has a lot of significance in our case.”

The CBI recently raided and sealed a jewellery shop in Bangalore alleged to have been part-owned by Patel. “We are trying to verify if Sweety and he were together in any other hawala transaction earlier,” the officer said. Sweety’s phonetaps allegedly show he was in frequent touch with Patel,speaking in “code words”.

Investigators are also studying how Sweety came to know about all the cases that came before the NCSC. Buta Singh has refused to appear before the agency.