The high-profile multi-crore gold smuggling scam that had stung the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Front government in Kerala has a stopover in Hyderabad, if investigators are to be believed.
The Customs officials, who are investigating the case after they seized diplomatic baggage containing gold weighing over 30 kg from Thiruvananthapuram international airport on July 5, ‘strongly’ believe that one Ismail from Hyderabad played a key role in hawala.
They found that the money, which was raised in Kerala against the smuggled yellow metal, was facilitated to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Middle Eastern countries through hawala channels that ‘actively’ operated from here to dodge banking regulators.
Ismail managed a large amount of UAE Dirham and US Dollars transactions as against the Indian rupee through his ‘well-oiled’ network on several occasions, the officials suspect.
A senior Customs officer confirmed that one Ismail with several aliases was involved and is probing to get more evidence.
“A probe is on to know if Hyderabad was the hawala headquarters in this case. Names of Ismail and a few others cropped up while probing the role of outsiders,” he said.
He added that they are trying to find ‘links’ between the accused Sandeep Nair, Swapna Suresh and Ismail.
“We will find out how they came in touch with each other and started the multi-crore business,” the officer said.
Meanwhile, the officials of the National Investigation Agency, Hyderabad, who arrested Swapna Suresh and Sandeep Nair from Bengaluru last week, are also trying to get information on Ismail.
When contacted, several officials of Hyderabad city police were unaware of the existence of Ismail.
“So far, no one has approached us for help and no one with the name Ismail, with such high-profile connections, is on our radar. It is a very common name,” said a senior police officer here.
“Illegal money transfer is a common phenomenon in all major cities across the country. In many cases, we can’t even prove their role, as there is no recorded evidence. These days, criminals are using WhatsApp and other highly encrypted mobile applications for communication,” the officer said.
Generally, hawala brokers in the city charge anywhere between ₹300 to ₹500 as commission for ₹1 lakh. The commission varies from country to country and season to season.
“During the lockdown following COVID, they were demanding ₹1,000 to ₹1,300 commission for hundi (intra-country) transaction, as the risk of getting caught by the police, is very high,” a source in the Begum Bazaar grey market said.
He added that hawala brokers in Hyderabad have a poor network in European countries, due to lack of counterparts.