Rs one crore illegal money seized,HP police suspects ‘Hawala’ racket

The land deal is understood to have connections with a leading Tibetan settler at McLeodganj and involves an amount upto Rs 2.50 crores.

While two persons were arrested by the police with the cash,third a monk —named Shakti Lama was arrested later in the night alongwith a foreign currency to the tune of Rs 20,000 Two persons arrested while entering Himachal alongwith cash are identified as Sanyog and Ashutosh .Both Hails from Dharamshala.

“The also recovered a fake bank guarantee from their possession. Police parties have now been sent to Dharamshala and New Delhi,beside Ambala to investigate source of the money,which the police also suspects to have come from a foreign country through ‘Hawala’ channel”,Director General of Police D.S.Manhas told the Indian Express here this morning.

Highly places sources said the cash was drawn from two private banks ( reported to be ICICI and HDFC) at Majnu-Ka-Tila,near New Delhi only few days back .

Earlier Additional Director General of Police S.R.Mardi said the arrested were made by the police on a tip off from sources. Two persons traveling in a Scorpio vehicles were intercepted at the Himachal Pradesh Punjab order and cash was recovered from them. None of them had explanation about the sources of the cash and where was it actually heading.

An FIR under section 23/11 under sections 419-B,420,467 and 468 IPC has been registered at Sadar Police station,Una .

As par police information,says Mardi “ the cash was meant for payments against a recent land deal entered into by few persons at Dharamshala at the behest of an influential Tibetan. The Police is investigating the entire issue in depth and there could be more arrested soon”.

The Police are understood to have also sounded the central revenue and intelligence agencies to broaden the scope of investigations as it could have national and international ramifications.

The Income Tax and Central Enforcement bodies have been informed about the recovery of such a huge cash in Himachal Pradesh,which is first of its kind incident in the hill state.

Till now,the biggest seizure of the bribe money and ill-gotten cash in the state is only upto Rs 11.50 lakhs by the state Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau from a Sub-Divisional Magistrate,recalls Mardi.