MHA tracks down Rs 1000-crore Chinese hawala ring supported by Pak spy network: Report

In a major development that may increase the Sino-Indian friction, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs tracked down a Rs 1000-crore hawala ring, allegedly headed by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in India.

The MHA further cracked down the case and found that the hawala channel was supported by a prevailing entrenched Pakistan spy network to establish their espionage networks in India, according to a Times Now report.

The central government has arrested the suspected Chinese agents.

Earlier this year, in August, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered a money laundering case against a Chinese national for allegedly running a hawala racket worth an estimated Rs 1,000 crore using shell or dubious firms. They said the central probe agency had pressed sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against 42-year-old Charlie Peng, alias Luo Sang, who is alleged to be the kingpin of the racket.

Investigations revealed that he had crossed into India in 2013 and first settled in Manipur where he married an Indian woman and later moved to Delhi to collect information on the whereabouts of key Tibetan refugees and people close to Dalai Lama in India, the report said.

Peng, according to PTI sources, was alleged to be holding a fake Indian passport and tax officials had said he created a "web of sham companies to launder hawala funds to and from China" in the past two-three years. They said his front or showcase business was of import and export of medical and electronic goods and some other items.

Evidence of foreign hawala transactions involving Hong Kong and US dollars have also been unearthed, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had said, when Peng was held.

"Incriminating documents of hawala transactions and money laundering with active involvement of bank employees and Chartered Accountants have been found as a result of the search action," it said.

(With inputs from PTI)