3 arrested with Rs 50 lakh, cops point to hawala links

NOIDA: Three persons were detained after Rs 50 lakh cash was recovered from their possession during a search in Sector 18, officials said on Tuesday.
DCP (Noida) Harish Chandar said a team led by ACP-1 Rajneesh Verma caught the three men from a Swift Dzire car near a hotel in Sector 27 and seized a bag with the cash. The recovered money, he said, was meant for a hawala transaction.
The accused, the DCP added, were to meet at a restaurant in Sector 18 and hand over the money to a Delhi-based hawala operator in return for an incentive.
Preliminary inquiry indicated the money belongs to Sanjeev Kumar Nit, a resident of Patna who runs a transport business. Sanjeev had accompanied one Kumar Aryan (38), a Bihar resident, to Delhi for the deal, but fled before the cops nabbed the men. The two other men -- Arvind Kumar (45) and Vijay (43), both from Delhi -- who were arrested are agents and had come to complete the deal on behalf of the hawala operator, police said.
“A woman was to mediate the deal for the two parties. Aryan told cops that they got in touch with the woman through a Facebook page,” Verma said.
Police, meanwhile, suspect four more people are involved in the nexus and have formed a special team to arrest the five members of the gang.
An FIR under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) has been registered against the three arrested at Sector 20 police station while the Income Tax department is carrying out raids at several places to bust the nexus.