Man nabbed with Rs 44 lakh hawala money

KOCHI: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) arrested a man carrying unaccounted Indian currency to the tune of Rs 44.88 lakh from Mangala Express (12618) on Friday. Malappuram native Siddik Kozhinhikodan, the arrested, confessed that he was carrying hawala money.

RPF assistant commissioner (Ernakulam) T S Gopakumar said Siddik didn’t have any documents on him to prove the source of the money.

“During interrogation, Siddik revealed that he collected the cash from Settu, a person in Salem, on the instruction of Alavikutty, a resident of Oorakam at Vengara in Malappuram. Siddik confessed that the currency was hawala money and that after collecting the cash, he took different trains for delivering the cash to Alavikutty,” said Gopakumar. He said Siddik was travelling without a ticket.

“The seized cash will be produced before the court,” he said. The RPF special squad comprising SI P V Raju, head constable K G Judson and constable Vipin G nabbed Siddik.